METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SORTING CYCLIC DATA IN LEXICOGRAPHIC ORDER

摘要

Methods and apparatus for lexicographically sorting cyclic data are disclosed. In one illustrative example, a method of lexicographically sorting data includes the acts of receiving a set of N cyclic shifts of N characters identifiable by an array of indexes {0, 1, 2, . . . , N-1}; sorting the set of cyclic shifts based on a comparison of a first character of each cyclic shift; and for an nth sorting iteration of the set of cyclic shifts, where n=1, 2, 3, . . . , up to 2SUPn/SUPN: sorting at least a subset of the cyclic shifts which are identifiable by a subset array of indexes in the array in accordance with a previous sort of cyclic shifts associated with the subset array of indexes plus 2SUP(n-1)/SUP*modulo(N); and repeating the sorting for a next nth sorting iteration as necessary until the set of cyclic shifts are lexicographically sorted.