- -- two implementations of a sort function 
- -- this is an example only. Lua has now a built-in function "sort" 
-   
- -- extracted from Programming Pearls, page 110 
- function qsort(x,l,u,f) 
-  if l<u then 
-   local m=math.random(u-(l-1))+l-1      -- choose a random pivot in range l..u 
-   x[l],x[m]=x[m],x[l]                   -- swap pivot to first position 
-   local t=x[l]                          -- pivot value 
-   m=l 
-   local i=l+1 
-   while i<=u do 
-     -- invariant: x[l+1..m] < t <= x[m+1..i-1] 
-     if f(x[i],t) then 
-       m=m+1 
-       x[m],x[i]=x[i],x[m]               -- swap x[i] and x[m] 
-     end 
-     i=i+1 
-   end 
-   x[l],x[m]=x[m],x[l]                   -- swap pivot to a valid place 
-   -- x[l+1..m-1] < x[m] <= x[m+1..u] 
-   qsort(x,l,m-1,f) 
-   qsort(x,m+1,u,f) 
-  end 
- end 
-   
- function selectionsort(x,n,f) 
-  local i=1 
-  while i<=n do 
-   local m,j=i,i+1 
-   while j<=n do 
-    if f(x[j],x[m]) then m=j end 
-    j=j+1 
-   end 
-  x[i],x[m]=x[m],x[i]                    -- swap x[i] and x[m] 
-  i=i+1 
-  end 
- end 
-   
- function show(m,x) 
-  io.write(m,"\n\t") 
-  local i=1 
-  while x[i] do 
-   io.write(x[i]) 
-   i=i+1 
-   if x[i] then io.write(",") end 
-  end 
-  io.write("\n") 
- end 
-   
- function testsorts(x) 
-  local n=1 
-  while x[n] do n=n+1 end; n=n-1         -- count elements 
-  show("original",x) 
-  qsort(x,1,n,function (x,y) return x<y end) 
-  show("after quicksort",x) 
-  selectionsort(x,n,function (x,y) return x>y end) 
-  show("after reverse selection sort",x) 
-  qsort(x,1,n,function (x,y) return x<y end) 
-  show("after quicksort again",x) 
- end 
-   
- -- array to be sorted 
- x={"Jan","Feb","Mar","Apr","May","Jun","Jul","Aug","Sep","Oct","Nov","Dec"} 
-   
- testsorts(x) 
-