# \[ANN\] SortingLab.jl - fast sorting algorithms for strings and CategoricalArrays

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/ann-sortinglab-jl-fast-sorting-algorithms-for-strings-and-categoricalarrays/19653>\
**Category:** Package Announcements\
**Tags:** sort, sortperm\
**Created:** [January 15, 2019, 11:05am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/ann-sortinglab-jl-fast-sorting-algorithms-for-strings-and-categoricalarrays/19653 "2019-01-15T11:05:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 3

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**Author:** ![xiaodai](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/xiaodai/32/15937_2.png) [@xiaodai](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/xiaodai)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 10:12pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/ann-sortinglab-jl-fast-sorting-algorithms-for-strings-and-categoricalarrays/19653/3 "2019-01-15T22:12:43Z")

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> [@Azamat](#):
>
> can just swap out the backend without having to refactor the code

There is [a thread about improving the sort API](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/taking-sorting-ordering-seriously/14975).

I tried to [incorporate my sorting algorithm into SortingAlgorithms.jl](https://github.com/JuliaCollections/SortingAlgorithms.jl/pull/27) but I found that there is a fundamental issue with [how base dispatches on the sorting data](https://github.com/JuliaCollections/SortingAlgorithms.jl/pull/27#issuecomment-357401608). What I wrote is difficult to understand and that is because the way the dispatch works is quite complicated and can’t be summarises and understood easily IMO.

I hope there is progress soon on the API and then we can incorporate.

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