A generalized partial pass block sort
A. Bayes · Communications of the ACM · 1968
The design of a partial pass block sort with arbitrary range of key and number of work files is described.The design is a generalization of the Partial Pass Column Sort by Ashenhurst and the Amphisbaenic Sort by Nagler.The power of the sort is tabulated for various sizes of input file and number of work files.Consideration is given to the problem of combining a block sort with internal sorts, and to the best use of direct access storage devices.