Is an algorithm that puts elements of a list in a certain order. The most frequently used orders are numerical order and lexicographical order. Efficient sorting is important for optimizing the efficiency of other algorithms (such as search and merge algorithms) that require input data to be in sorted lists. Sorting is also often useful for canonicalizing data and for producing human-readable output. More formally, the output of any sorting algorithm must satisfy two conditions: The output is in nondecreasing order (each element is no smaller than the previous element according to the desired total order); The output is a permutation (a reordering, yet retaining all of the original elements) of the input. Further, the input data is often stored in an array, which allows random access, rather than a list, which only allows sequential access; though many algorithms can be applied to either type of data after suitable modification.
