# Sorting Sorting is the process of taking a set of data and creating an ordering based on some criteria. The criteria must allow for items to be compared and used to determine what should come first and second. For example you can sort numbers. But even then, there is ascending order (smaller numbers comes before bigger numbers) or descending order (bigger numbers comes before smaller ones). For other data, you can still have this kind of ordering. For example for strings, you can have alphabetic ordering ("apple" comes before "banana"). Anything that allows you to compare and say item A comes before item B allows for sorting. Regardless of what it is that we are basing the sorting on, the algorithms used for sorting are the same. The only difference is the comparison operation. With the comparison all we are doing is asking which item should come first. This section of the notes will look at 6 different sorting algorithms. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://catherine-leung.gitbook.io/data-strutures-and-algorithms/sorting.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.