• arrange records in a particular order, based on a key
• to facilitate searching eg. Binary Search
• e.g. Bubble, Insertion, Selection, and Quick sort

         for i from 0 to n - 2 do
            for j from n-1 down to i + 1 do
               if a[j-1] > a[j] 
                  { temp = a[j-1]; a[j-1] = a[j]; a[j] = temp }

Outer loop: n = 8, i = 0 to 6, repeat seven times 
  Inner loop: for j = n(8) - 1 down to i(0) + 1 
                 do if (a[j-1] > a[j]) swap([j-1],a[j]) 

    First pass: { 7, 3, 66, 3, -5, 22, -77, 2}; i = 0; j = 7 
    Second pass: { 7, 3, 66, 3, -5, -77, 22, 2}; i = 0; j = 6 
    Third pass: { 7, 3, 66, 3, -77, -5, 22, 2}; i = 0; j = 5 
    Fourth pass: { 7, 3, 66, -77, 3, -5, 22, 2}; i = 0; j = 4 
    Fifth pass: { 7, 3, -77, 66, 3, -5, 22, 2}; i = 0; j = 3 
    Sixth pass: { 7, -77, 3, 66, 3, -5, 22, 2}; i = 0; j = 2 
    Seventh pass: { -77, 7, 3, 66, 3, -5, 22, 2}; i = 0; j = 1 

  Second pass: { -77, -5, 7, 3, 66, 3, 2, 22}; i = 1; j = 7 down to 2
  Third pass: { -77, -5, 2, 7, 3, 66, 3, 22}; i = 2; j = 7 down to 3
  Fourth pass: { -77, -5, 2, 3, 7, 3, 66, 22}; i = 3; j = 7 down to 4 
  Fifth pass: { -77, -5, 2, 3, 3, 7, 22, 66}; i = 4; j = 7 down to 5
  Sixth pass: { -77, -5, 2, 3, 3, 7, 22, 66}; i = 5; j = 7 down to 6 
  Seventh pass: { -77, -5, 2, 3, 3, 7, 22, 66}; i = 6; j = 7 down to 7

class Sorting {
  public static void main(String[] args) {

    int[] a = new int[args.length]; 

    for (int i = 0; i < args.length; i++)
	a[i] = Integer.parseInt(args[i]);

    for (int i = 0; i < a.length - 1; i++)
	for (int j = a.length - 1; i < j; j--) {
	   if (a[j-1] > a[j]) {
		int temp = a[j-1];
		a[j-1] = a[j];
		a[j] = temp;
	    }
	}
				
     for (int i = 0; i < a.length; i++)
	System.out.println(a[i]);
  }
}

import java.util.*;
class Sorting1 {
	public static void main(String[] args) {

		int[] a = new int[args.length]; 

		for (int i = 0; i < args.length; i++)
			a[i] = Integer.parseInt(args[i]);

		Arrays.sort(a);

		for (int i = 0; i < a.length; i++)
			System.out.println(a[i]);
	}
}