sorting algorythm that keeps the order of equal elements

hello !

i need to find an algorythm for sorting that keeps the order of equal elements...

all that i've tried are messing up my data...

also, maybe that algorythm has a form in witch i can implement a time routine to see how much time remains until full sorting...

maybe someone known such as algorythm...

thanks !

PS : excuse my english...

I'm not fully sure I understand you... but maybe you want a so called stable sorting algorithm, such as radix sort.

Search on www.google.com for more info about it.

In C++, use std::stable_sort()

The STL comes indeed with stable_sort, which is most probably implemented in terms of a merge sort. The run-time characteristics of this sorting method are pretty predictable, so you should be able to modify it so that it gives a sort of progress-report. Other sorting algorithms, like quicksort or introsort (the std::sort algorithm) are not that predictable.