Oscillating merge sort

Oscillating merge sort or oscillating sort is a variation of merge sort used with tape drives that can read backwards. Instead of doing a complete distribution as is done in a tape merge, the distribution of the input and the merging of runs are interspersed. The oscillating merge sort does not waste rewind time or have tape drives sit idle as in the conventional tape merge.

References

Bradley, James (1982), File and Data Base Techniques, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, ISBN 0-03-058673-9
Flores, Ivan (1969), Computer Sorting, Prentice-Hall, ISBN 978-0-13165746-5
Knuth, D. E. (1975), Sorting and Searching, The Art of Computer Programming, vol. 3, Addison Wesley
Lowden, B. G. T., "A note on the oscillating sort" (PDF), The Computer Journal, 20 (1): 92
Martin, W. A. (1971 title=Sorting), Computing Surveys, ACM {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help); Missing pipe in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
Sobel, Sheldon (July 1962), "Oscillating Sort–A New Sort Merging Technique", Journal of the ACM, 9 (3), New York, NY: ACM: 372–374, doi:10.1145/321127.321133

v t e Sorting algorithms
Theory	Computational complexity theory Big O notation Total order Lists Inplacement Stability Comparison sort Adaptive sort Sorting network Integer sorting X + Y sorting Transdichotomous model Quantum sort
Exchange sorts	Bubble sort Cocktail shaker sort Odd–even sort Comb sort Gnome sort Proportion extend sort Quicksort
Selection sorts	Selection sort Heapsort Smoothsort Cartesian tree sort Tournament sort Cycle sort Weak-heap sort
Insertion sorts	Insertion sort Shellsort Splaysort Tree sort Library sort Patience sorting
Merge sorts	Merge sort Cascade merge sort Oscillating merge sort Polyphase merge sort
Distribution sorts	American flag sort Bead sort Bucket sort Burstsort Counting sort Interpolation sort Pigeonhole sort Proxmap sort Radix sort Flashsort
Concurrent sorts	Bitonic sorter Batcher odd–even mergesort Pairwise sorting network Samplesort
Hybrid sorts	Block merge sort Kirkpatrick–Reisch sort Timsort Introsort Spreadsort Merge-insertion sort
Other	Topological sorting Pre-topological order Pancake sorting Spaghetti sort
Impractical sorts	Stooge sort Slowsort Bogosort