<s>
Multi-key	B-Algorithm
quicksort	I-Algorithm
,	O
also	O
known	O
as	O
three-way	B-Algorithm
radix	I-Algorithm
quicksort	I-Algorithm
,	O
is	O
an	O
algorithm	O
for	O
sorting	B-Algorithm
strings	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
hybrid	O
of	O
quicksort	B-Algorithm
and	O
radix	B-Algorithm
sort	I-Algorithm
was	O
originally	O
suggested	O
by	O
P.Shackleton	O
,	O
as	O
reported	O
in	O
one	O
of	O
C.A.R.	O
</s>
<s>
Hoare	O
's	O
seminal	O
papers	O
on	O
quicksort	B-Algorithm
;	O
its	O
modern	O
incarnation	O
was	O
developed	O
by	O
Jon	O
Bentley	O
and	O
Robert	O
Sedgewick	O
in	O
the	O
mid-1990s	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
One	O
of	O
the	O
algorithm	O
's	O
uses	O
is	O
the	O
construction	O
of	O
suffix	B-Algorithm
arrays	I-Algorithm
,	O
for	O
which	O
it	O
was	O
one	O
of	O
the	O
fastest	O
algorithms	O
as	O
of	O
2004	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
three-way	B-Algorithm
radix	I-Algorithm
quicksort	I-Algorithm
algorithm	O
sorts	O
an	O
array	O
of	O
(	O
pointers	O
to	O
)	O
strings	O
in	O
lexicographic	O
order	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Unlike	O
most	O
string	O
sorting	B-Algorithm
algorithms	I-Algorithm
that	O
look	O
at	O
many	O
bytes	O
in	O
a	O
string	O
to	O
decide	O
if	O
a	O
string	O
is	O
less	O
than	O
,	O
the	O
same	O
as	O
,	O
or	O
equal	O
to	O
some	O
other	O
string	O
;	O
and	O
then	O
turning	O
its	O
focus	O
to	O
some	O
other	O
pair	O
of	O
strings	O
,	O
the	O
multi-key	B-Algorithm
quicksort	I-Algorithm
initially	O
looks	O
at	O
only	O
one	O
byte	O
of	O
every	O
string	O
in	O
the	O
array	O
,	O
byte	O
d	O
,	O
initially	O
the	O
first	O
byte	O
of	O
every	O
string	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
partition	O
function	O
is	O
a	O
variant	O
of	O
the	O
one	O
used	O
in	O
ordinary	O
three-way	O
quicksort	B-Algorithm
:	O
it	O
rearranges	O
so	O
that	O
all	O
of	O
have	O
an	O
element	O
at	O
position	O
that	O
is	O
less	O
than	O
,	O
have	O
at	O
position	O
,	O
and	O
strings	O
from	O
onward	O
have	O
a	O
'	O
th	O
element	O
larger	O
than	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Practical	O
implementations	O
of	O
multi-key	B-Algorithm
quicksort	I-Algorithm
can	O
benefit	O
from	O
the	O
same	O
optimizations	O
typically	O
applied	O
to	O
quicksort	B-Algorithm
:	O
median-of-three	O
pivoting	O
,	O
switching	O
to	O
insertion	B-Algorithm
sort	I-Algorithm
for	O
small	O
arrays	O
,	O
etc	O
.	O
</s>
