What is the fastest sorting algorithm for a small number of integers?

Question

I am wondering what the fastest algorithm would be for this. I have 8 integers between 0 and 3000 and I need to sort them. Although there are only 8 integers, this operation w

Answer 1

For only 8 integers and given that the range is much greater than 8, insertion sort is probably the best. Try it to start with, and if profiling indicates that it's not the bottleneck then leave it.

(Depending on many factors, the cutoff point at which quick-sort becomes better than insertion sort is usually between 5 and 10 items).