Sorting a String Array Alphabetically C++

Question

I'm trying to write a program that is given the following structures:

struct aPlayer {
  string name;  // name of player
  int wins;     // number of wins player has
};

struct aCompetition {
  string  name;                 // name of the match
  int     numPlayers;           // number of players in the club
  aPlayer player[10];           // list of players in this club
};

From there I want to write a function that will sort the players by name alphabetically. The function declaration would be as follows:

    void sortByName(aCompetition & c){}

Note: I would like to do this by only using for loops, while loops, and if statement(s). The only way I could think to compare the two strings would be to compare their ASCII values. I'm not sure how to do that so any input will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

Sorting is provided by the standard library, on types with an operator<, or other types if given that comparator. You can build one off of string::operator< which performs lexical comparison.

#include <algorithm>
void sortByName(aCompetition& c) {
    sort(&c.player[0], &c.player[c.numPlayers],
            [](const aPlayer& a, const aPlayer& b) {return a.name < b.name;});
}

If you don't have C++11 lambdas then you'd use a functor.

struct compareAPlayerByName {
    boolean operator()(const aPlayer& a, const aPlayer& b) {
        return a.name < b.name;
    }
};
void sortByName(aCompetition& c) {
    sort(&c.player[0], &c.player[c.numPlayers], compareAPlayerByName());
}