Hi Kieran



 KH> I was wondering if someone might be able to point me in the right direction

 KH> of how to numerically and alphabetically sort a large file, say ranging from

 KH> 1k to over 4meg in size...



I'd suggest finding a book on sorting or general algorithms. Simple

sorting I can explain, but when you introduce the limitation that

the array to be sorted can't fit into memory in one piece, then the

best in-memory sorting algorithms can run into funny limitations

(if, for example, they need to access widely spaced records

sequentially).



 KH> It doesn't have to be portable, but it would be preferred.. FWIW i'm using

 KH> Turbo C++ 3.0



Portability is important if you want the fastest possible sort. A

sort optimised for TC++3 on your msdos pc would run like a dog

compared with Quicksort on an OS/2 pc with 32M memory...



The book I use is "Algorithms", Robert Sedgewick, Addison-Wesley,

ISBN 0-201-51059-6, but it's not the only book (I only got one

book, I'm a rank amateur.) Look around, and ask around.



Btw, IMHO, Borland's manuals have gone downhill in recent years

(unlike their compilers). Don't regard them as bibles.



Cheers



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