Colin Runciman
Also, curiously enough, it could just as well be the problem that your int-sorting phase has too *little* sorting to do, as this common version of quickSort degenerates both for in-order and reverse-order inputs.
*lights go on* Of course! While I have about 90K values to sort, it's only a range from 0 to about 5-600, and a less than even distribution at that. (I must be a lot denser than I thought. Colin, if you ever happen to pass by, do let me know, I think I owe you a beer.) Okay: bucket sort; does anybody know of a nice bucket sort I can rip off? :-) (Actually, while I haven't done the math or the tests to say for sure, I suspect a trivial mod to QS where equals are kept in a separate list might do just fine. Would that be a sensible modification to put in the standard libraries, I wonder?) Thanks again! -kzm -- If I haven't seen further, it is by standing in the footprints of giants