Integer Integer An integer (from the Latin "integer" meaning "whole") is a number that can be written without a fractional component. For example, 21, 4, 0, and −2048 are integers, while 9.75, , and are not. The set of integers consists of zero (), the positive natural numbers (, , , …), also called "whole numbers" or "counting numbers", and their additive inverses (the negative integers, i.e., −1, −2, −3, …). The set of integers is often denoted by a boldface Z ("") or blackboard bold formula_1 (Unicode U+2124 ℤ) standing for the German word "Zahlen" (, "numbers"). The integers form
Comparison sort sorts generally adapt more easily to complex orders such as the order of floating-point numbers. Additionally, once a comparison function is written, any comparison sort can be used without modification; non-comparison sorts typically require specialized versions for each datatype. This flexibility, together with the efficiency of the above comparison sorting algorithms on modern computers, has led to widespread preference for comparison sorts in most practical work. Some sorting problems admit a strictly faster solution than the bound for comparison sorting; an example is integer sorting, where all keys are integers. When the keys form a small (compared to ) range,