An in-place sort algorithm which repeatedly reorders different, small subsets of the input until the entire array is ordered. On each pass it sorts i sets of n/i items, where n is the total number of items to sort. Each set is every ith item, e.g. set 1 is item 1, 1+i, 1+2i, etc., set 2 is item 2, 2+i, etc. Typically each set is sorted with an insertion sort. On each succeeding pass, the increment, i, is reduced until it is 1 for the last pass.
[National Institute of Standards and Technology]
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