Sortera

Sortera is a Swedish verb meaning to sort, classify, or arrange items into groups based on specified characteristics. It is used in everyday life for tasks such as sorting laundry, sorting recycling according to material type, or organizing objects into categories. In data handling and computing, sortera also appears as a term for reordering collections of items.

The word derives from the noun sort, meaning kind or type, with the verb-forming suffix -era. In other Germanic languages there are closely related forms, such as German sortieren and English sort.

In daily life, sorting supports efficiency and waste management, logistics, and organization. Examples include sorting clothes by color, separating recyclable materials, or arranging mail and documents by category.

In computing and data processing, sorting refers to arranging elements in a sequence according to a defined key. It is a foundational operation in databases, spreadsheets, and programming. Common algorithms include quicksort, mergesort, heapsort, and insertion sort. Some sorts are stable, preserving the relative order of equal elements; others are not. Sorting can be performed in ascending or descending order and may be locale-sensitive for text comparisons.

The choice of sorting method depends on data size, distribution, and performance requirements. On average, many efficient algorithms run in O(n log n) time, while simpler methods may be appropriate for small or nearly sorted data. Sorting is often a preprocessing step before searching, grouping, or presenting data.