Function QuickSortString(arrString() As String, _
Optional lLow1 = -1, _
Optional lhigh1 = -1)

'Dimension variables
Dim lLow2 As Long
Dim lhigh2 As Long
Dim strVal1 As String
Dim strVal2 As String

'If first time, get the size of the array to sort
If lLow1 = -1 Then
lLow1 = LBound(arrString, 1)
End If

If lhigh1 = -1 Then
lhigh1 = UBound(arrString, 1)
End If

'Set new extremes to old extremes
lLow2 = lLow1
lhigh2 = lhigh1

'Get value of array item in middle of new extremes
strVal1 = arrString((lLow1 + lhigh1) / 2)

'Loop for all the items in the array between the extremes
While (lLow2 <= lhigh2)

'Find the first item that is greater than the mid-point item
While (arrString(lLow2) < strVal1 And lLow2 < lhigh1)
lLow2 = lLow2 + 1
Wend

'Find the last item that is less than the mid-point item
While (arrString(lhigh2) strVal1 And lhigh2 lLow1)
lhigh2 = lhigh2 - 1
Wend

'If the new 'greater' item comes before the new 'less' item, swap them
If (lLow2 <= lhigh2) Then
strVal2 = arrString(lLow2)
arrString(lLow2) = arrString(lhigh2)
arrString(lhigh2) = strVal2

'Advance the pointers to the next item
lLow2 = lLow2 + 1
lhigh2 = lhigh2 - 1
End If
Wend

'Iterate to sort the lower half of the extremes
If (lhigh2 lLow1) Then Call QuickSortString(arrString, lLow1, lhigh2)

'Iterate to sort the upper half of the extremes
If (lLow2 < lhigh1) Then Call QuickSortString(arrString, lLow2, lhigh1)

QuickSortString = arrString

End Function


There is actually a way to do this much faster, but that needs coding in
VB6. Will see if I can post it later.


RBS


"Deke" wrote in message
...
I have been reading thru various post on the forum about sorting large
arrays
and most of the post seem to be about integer arrays.

I have found some links and comments about string arrays, but none of them
are exactly what I'm looking for and I'm having some trouble re-writing
the
code to get them to work.

Basically, I'm needing a routine that can sort a string array containing
approx 1.5 million elements. As I said, I have had a look around and a
quick
sort seems to be the best method to use for this size of array.

I have the code for a quick sort written by Jim Rech in 1998, but this is
for a 2 dimensional array, where mine is just a single dimension.

If I can get the array sorted, then this is going to make processing of
the
input file alot quicker.

Hopefully some one can help.

Many thanks in advance...
--
Cheers...