Integer (computer science) at least 32 bits on any computer. Programmers may also incorrectly assume that a pointer can be converted to an integer without loss of information, which may work on (some) 32-bit computers, but fail on 64-bit computers with 64-bit pointers and 32-bit integers. A "short integer" can represent a whole number that may take less storage, while having a smaller range, compared with a standard integer on the same machine. In C, it is denoted by short. It is required to be at least 16 bits, and is often smaller than a standard integer, but this is not required. A
Comparison sort counting sort is an example algorithm that runs in linear time. Other integer sorting algorithms, such as radix sort, are not asymptotically faster than comparison sorting, but can be faster in practice. The problem of sorting pairs of numbers by their sum is not subject to the bound either (the square resulting from the pairing up); the best known algorithm still takes time, but only comparisons. The number of comparisons that a comparison sort algorithm requires increases in proportion to formula_1, where formula_2 is the number of elements to sort. This bound is asymptotically tight. Given a list of distinct