Sorting means arranging all the items in a list in ascending order of their magnitude. We will be discussing some of the most important sorting algorithms, which each have different performance attributes with respect to runtime complexity. Sorting algorithms are categorized by their memory usage, complexity, recursion, and whether they are comparison-based, among other considerations.

Some of the algorithms use more CPU cycles, and, as such, have bad asymptotic values. Other algorithms chew on more memory and other computing resources as they sort a number of values. Another consideration is how sorting algorithms lend themselves to being expressed recursively, iteratively, or both. There are algorithms that use comparison as the basis for sorting elements. An example of this is the bubble sort algorithm. Examples of a non-comparison sorting algorithm are the bucket sort and pigeonhole sort algorithms.