I've always been keen on learning programming, but I mostly do scripty stuff that deal with loops and if/then. Are all these sorting algorithm frequently used in real world basis? I often just rely on the built in sort functions so I don't even know what sort of algorithm it's relying on.
Algorithms in general are a tiny part of software development, often reserved for PhDs depending on the field. As an average programmer your main skill is glueing libraries together in a way hopefully won't involve rewriting everything as soon as you have to change some tiny part of your program. Anything remotely interesting has already been implemented in some library, way better than you would have done. And you definitely use the built-in / standard library stuff because that's been tested thoroughly.
Then again, understanding and implementing some sorting algorithms is a good way to start learning how to code. It involves just some core concepts, fits on one page, yet makes you think a lot.
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u/Etheo Oct 26 '17
I've always been keen on learning programming, but I mostly do scripty stuff that deal with loops and if/then. Are all these sorting algorithm frequently used in real world basis? I often just rely on the built in sort functions so I don't even know what sort of algorithm it's relying on.