lists:sort/2

[Ulf Wiger]

I encountered some surprising results when using
lists:sort/2. Given a list [{P,R}], I wanted a list sorted
on P for all P < 3, and sorted on R for the remainder.
I tried two different funs on the same list. The second one
below produced the wanted result. The first one didn't.
There is no help from the documentation in explaining why
this happens, or indeed that there is a difference.

Does anyone feel acquainted enough with the sorting
algorithm to explain the phenomenon? Am I using the function
in a way that was never intended?

/Uffe

L = [{1, 10.1},
     {4, 10.4},
     {1, 11.2},
     {3, 10.3},
     {2, 10.2}].
 --> [{1,10.1000},{4,10.4000},{1,11.2000},{3,10.3000},{2,10.2000}]

lists:sort(
  fun({P1,_}, {P2,_}) when P1 < 3 ->
	  P1 < P2;
     ({_,R1}, {_,R2}) ->
	  R1 < R2
  end, L).
 --> [{1,10.1000},{4,10.4000},{1,11.2000},{2,10.2000},{3,10.3000}]

lists:sort(
  fun({P1,_}, {P2,_}) when P2 < 3 ->
	  P1 < P2;
     ({_,R1}, {_,R2}) ->
	  R1 < R2
  end, L).
 --> [{1,11.2000},{1,10.1000},{2,10.2000},{3,10.3000},{4,10.4000}]


/Uffe
-- 
Ulf Wiger, Senior Specialist,
   / / /   Architecture & Design of Carrier-Class Software
  / / /    Strategic Product & System Management
 / / /     Ericsson AB, Connectivity and Control Nodes