quick sort an Array of characters (string) C programming

Question

I have a character array

char word[30];

that keeps a word that the user will input and I want to sort the letters for example if the word is "cat" I want it to make it a "act" I suppose is rather easy task but as a beginner in C programming i find the examples on the internet rather confusing.

This is my code trying to do the bubble sort...

Still doesn't work

#include <stdio.h>
#include<string.h>

#define MAX_STRING_LEN 30

main()
{
char w1[30], w2[30];
char tempw1[30], tempw2[30];
int n,i,k;
char temp;  
    printf("Give the first word: ");
    scanf("%s",&w1);
    printf("Give the second word: ");
    scanf("%s",&w2);
        if(strlen(w1)==strlen(w2)) /* checks if words has the same length */
            {
            strcpy(tempw1,w1); /*antigrafei to wi string sto tempw1 */ 
            strcpy(tempw2,w2); /*antigrafei to w2 string sto tempw2 */ 
            n=strlen(w1);


             for (i=1; i<n-1; i++)
               {
                                for (k=n;k>i+1;k--)
                    {
                        if (w1[k] < w1[k-1])
                            {
                                temp=w1[k-1];
                                w1[k-1]=w1[k];
                                w1[k]=temp;
                            }
                     }
            }
             for (i=1; i<n-1; i++)
               {
                                for (k=n;k>i+1;k--)
                    {
                        if (w2[k] < w2[k-1])
                            {
                                temp=w2[k-1];
                                w2[k-1]=w2[k];
                                w2[k]=temp;
                            }
                     }
                } 
            printf("%s \n",tempw1);
            printf("%s \n",w1);
            printf("%s \n",tempw2);
            printf("%s \n",w2);
            /* call qsort */
            /* call compare */
            }
        else printf(" \n H lexh %s den einai anagrammatismos tis lexhs %s",w1,w2);
    return 0;St

ok thank you for the bubble sort suggestion i thought that this will only work in integers! Ill try it right away , the programm i am trying to work is an anagram game as an excersise i have solved all the other parts that i compare the two arrays but needed to sort them first to compare. — poseidon11
– poseidon11, Commented Feb 16, 2013 at 14:19
@poseidon11 1. characters are integers. 2. You can come up with some sort of algorithm that compares objects based on their properties, else there wouldn't be generic sorting algorithms. — user529758
– user529758, Commented Feb 16, 2013 at 14:22

user529758 · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-16 14:21:41Z

10

Use qsort() from the C standard library:

int compare(const void *a, const void *b)
{
    return *(const char *)a - *(const char *)b;
}

char arr[] = "dbaurjvgeofx";

printf("Unsorted: %s\n", arr);
qsort(arr, strlen(arr), 1, compare);
printf("Sorted: %s\n", arr);

answered Feb 16, 2013 at 14:21

user529758

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Comments

Keith A · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-16 14:20:27Z

1

This is fundamental programming knowledge and you'd be doing yourself a favor by solving it yourself..

That being said, here's a quick pseudo

for i is equal to 1 to length of array
  for k is equal to i to length of array
   if i > k
    temp = i
    i = k
    k = temp
   endif
  endfor
endfor

answered Feb 16, 2013 at 14:20

Keith A

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2 Comments

Eve Freeman Over a year ago

This isn't quick sort. Oh--after rereading I guess maybe he wasn't looking for the quick sort algorithm... just a "quick" sort. Lol.

poseidon11 Over a year ago

thanks alot for the help i tryed bubble sort all day but i couldnt do it for some reason , finaly got it working with qsort :D

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