Thread: Sorting strings using selection sort method?

I am trying to write a program to sort the characters in a word alphabetically. For example, if you input 'what', the computer will sort it into 'ahtw'. But, it fails to work. I didn't know why.

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
main()
{
    char word[50], temp[5];
    int x,y, l, c, value, bigs;
    printf("input a word: ");
    scanf("%s", &word);
    l=strlen(word);
    strlwr(word);
    c=0;
    bigs=0;
    for(x=0; x<l-c; x++)
    {
        for(y=0; y<l; y++)
        bigs=strcmp(word[x], word[x+1])>0?bigs:word[x];
        strcpy(word[l-c], temp);
        strcpy(bigs, word[l-c]);
        strcpy(temp, bigs);
        c++;
    }
    puts("The sorted one is:");
    for(x=0; x<l; x++)
    {
        printf("%c", word[x]);
    }
}

This is my first post here, I still don't know anything. So, please help me..

Thanks in advance

You're sorting characters within a string, so perhaps using strcmp() and strcpy() isn't a great idea

You don't use strcpy on characters, only on strings. You assign characters normally, that is, using "=".

I think you're right. I didn't know that. Thanks

But, it isn't actually the program I am trying to write. My homework is to write a code to sort some words inputted by user. So far, this is all I got. And then sadly I am stuck

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
main()
{
    int a, b, c, d, bigs, n, l[15], m;
    char word[15][15], temp[15];
    puts("How many words would you like to input?");
    scanf("%d", &n);
    for(a=0; a<n; a++)
    {
        printf("word no. %d: ", a+1);
        scanf("%s", &word[a]);
        strlwr(word[a]);
        l[a]=strlen(word[a]);
    }
    for(a=0; a<n-1; a++)//to define which word has the longest chars
    {
        m=l[a]<l[a+1]?m:l[a];
    }
    for(a=0; a<m; a++)
    {
        for(b=0; b<n-1; b++)
        {
            d=0;
            for(c=0; c<n-1; c++)
            bigs=word[c][a]<word[c+1][a]?bigs:word[c][a];
            printf("%c", bigs);
        }
    }
}

the last looping was meant to find a word having the biggest character (according to ASCII). But to do that we have to look at the first character of each word first, right? That's basically what I am doing. And after we find it, the whole word should be put in the last array. That's something I can't figure out how. We know that 'value' stores the character. But I need to move the whole word, not just the first character. I hope you get what I mean.

Can somebody help me please?

Thank you for your welcome and help I am sorry if you didn't see my latest post , I am writing a code to sort any words. Just any words and the output should become like a dictionary. And I am stuck there.

If you want a sorted word list - just the words, not the definitions, there are many of them freely available on the net.

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>  //for strcmp()

#define WORDNUM 7    //how many words there are
#define SIZE 30      //how large the largest word can be - 29 letters
                     //+1 for the end of string char marker  

void selectionSort(char words[WORDNUM][SIZE]);  


int main()
{
   int i;
   char words[WORDNUM][SIZE]={
      {"sierra"},
      {"hotel"},
      {"whiskey"},
      {"romeo"},
      {"bravo"},
      {"juliet"},
      {"alpha"}
   };
   printf("Original order\n");
   for(i=0;i<WORDNUM;i++) {
     printf("%s\n",words[i]);
   }
   printf("\nSorted order\n");
   
   selectionSort(words);
   
   for(i=0;i<WORDNUM;i++) {
     printf("%s\n",words[i]);
   }
   
   printf("\n");   
   
   return 0;
}
void selectionSort(char words[WORDNUM][SIZE])
{
   int i,j,n=WORDNUM,min;
   char temp[SIZE];
    
   for(i = 0; i < n-1 ; i++) {
      min = i;                 //set min to the firt index  
      for(j = i+1; j < n; j++) {
         if ((strcmp(words[j],words[min]))<0) {
            min = j;
         }
      }
 
      if( min != i ) {
         //printf("i:%d min:%d word[i]:%c  word[min]:%c\n",i,min,word[i],word[min]); getchar();
         strcpy(temp,words[i]);       //copy into temp, words[i]
         strcpy(words[i],words[min]); //copy into words[i], words[min] 
         strcpy(words[min],temp);     //copy into words[min],temp

      }
   }
}

Thank you very much. It took me a while to understand the code. I have changed some parts of it to meet my needs. But, I have a question, so the computer will find the lowest character in the string instead of the highest one? Because that's what I assume from 'min' variable.

Originally Posted by soawperL25

Thank you very much. It took me a while to understand the code. I have changed some parts of it to meet my needs. But, I have a question, so the computer will find the lowest character in the string instead of the highest one? Because that's what I assume from 'min' variable.

Selection sort can work either way - the normal sort is ascending value (a-z), but descending can be done by a simple change of the comparison it makes.

In the first example, it found the lowest char in the word, and sorted each word. In the second example, it finds the lowest remaining word, in the list of words.