This is intended as a demonstration page for an introductory programming course, showing the step-by-step progress of various sorting algorithms. There are many other pages that have similar kinds of demonstrations (see the links on the right), but I feel that my approach is valuable as a complement to those pages.

The source code shown (below on the right) is a "C-like" language, except that (a) I have omitted details such as variable declaration and typing, and (b) I use a pseudo-command "swap" to accomplish swapping two entries in the array. (I also used a pseudo-command "copy" in the merge-sort algorithm.) Also note that, because this page is intended as an educational tool, in some cases I sacrificed efficiency for brevity and (I hope) clarity, esp. in the two quicksort algorithms.

This is a work-in-progress, and I am open to suggestions, criticisms, or fawning praise. I should also acknowledge that I blatantly pilfered some of the sorting source code from a variety of sites (marked with asterisks in the links list).

• Sorting Algorithms (Wikipedia)* — lots of information (as one would expect), and lots of other links.
• The Improved Sorting Algorithms Page (Pat Morin, Carleton University)* — run a three-way race between three algorithms of your choice (some very good, and some very bad).
• Sorting Algorithms Demonstration* — visual demonstration of many algorithms, plus lots of information about efficiency.
• Sorting Algorithm Animations* — still more visual demonstrations.
• Animated Algortithms: Sorting (David Howard) — a different approach to visualizing the sorting process; some of these are fun to watch (try "Ordered/Heap", or "Reverse/Shell").
• xSortLab (David Eck, Hobart and William Smith Colleges) — visual demonstrations, and a timing mode allowing comparison of the algorithms.
• Sorting Algorithms (Dominique F. Thiebaut) — visual demonstration of several algorithms.
• Sorting Demos (Brian Borowski) — visual demonstration of several algorithms, including pseudo-code trace.
• "AniSort" Sorting Demos (Max Nagl) — visual demonstration of several algorithms, including trace (Java or C++).
• Sorting Demos (Rameen Mohammadi, SUNY Oswego) — visual demonstration of four algorithms, including C trace.
• Sorting Contest (H.W. Lang) — run eight algorithms at once.
• Sorting demo (Andrew Kitchen) — visual demonstration of four algorithms, including two parallel algorithms.
• The Heroic Tales of Sorting Algorithms — no demonstrations, but nice summary information.