Radix Sort
Radix Sort is a non-comparative integer sorting algorithm that sorts data by processing individual digits or groups of digits (radices) from the least significant to the most significant. It uses a stable sorting subroutine, often counting sort or bucket sort, to arrange elements based on each digit position. This algorithm is efficient for sorting numbers, strings, or other data with fixed-length keys, achieving linear time complexity in many cases.
Developers should learn Radix Sort when they need to sort large datasets of integers or fixed-length strings, especially in performance-critical applications like database indexing, scientific computing, or data processing pipelines. It is particularly useful when the range of key values is known and limited, as it avoids the O(n log n) lower bound of comparison-based sorts, offering O(nk) time where k is the number of digits. However, it is not suitable for floating-point numbers or variable-length data without adaptation.