Arrays.sort()方法的源码分析

Arrays.sort(Object[] a)方法的源代码如下：

public static void sort(Object[] a) {
    if (LegacyMergeSort.userRequested)
        legacyMergeSort(a);
    else
        ComparableTimSort.sort(a, 0, a.length, null, 0, 0);
}
/** To be removed in a future release. */
private static void legacyMergeSort(Object[] a) {
    Object[] aux = a.clone();
    mergeSort(aux, a, 0, a.length, 0);
}

sort有一个分支判断，当LegacyMergeSort.userRequested为true的情况下，采用legacyMergeSort，否则采用ComparableTimSort。LegacyMergeSort.userRequested的字面意思大概就是“用户请求传统归并排序”的意思。
legacyMergeSort是传统的归并排序，而ComparableTimSort是优化的归并排序。

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当执行如下语句：

Person[] p = new Person[4];
p[0] = new Person("AAA",30);
p[1] = new Person("BBB",20);
p[2] = new Person("CCC",25);
p[3] = new Person("DDD",5);
Arrays.sort(p);

调用Arrays的sort(Object[] a)方法，源码如下：

public static void sort(Object[] a) {
     if (LegacyMergeSort.userRequested)
         legacyMergeSort(a);
     else
         ComparableTimSort.sort(a, 0, a.length, null, 0, 0);
}

若LegacyMergeSort.userRequested(大概就是“用户请求传统归并排序”的意思)为true，则调用legacyMergeSort(Object[] a)方法，否则调用ComparableTimSort的sort(Object[] a, int lo, int hi, Object[] work, int workBase, int workLen)方法。

先来看一下legacyMergeSort(Object[] a)方法，源码如下：

/** To be removed in a future release. */
private static void legacyMergeSort(Object[] a) {
    Object[] aux = a.clone();
    mergeSort(aux, a, 0, a.length, 0);
}

文档注释中说明了该方法在将来的版本中会被移除；
然后调用了mergeSort(Object[] src,Object[] dest,int low,int high,int off)方法，传入的参数分别是aux,a,0,a.length,0。源码如下：

/**
 * Src is the source array that starts at index 0
 * Dest is the (possibly larger) array destination with a possible offset
 * low is the index in dest to start sorting
 * high is the end index in dest to end sorting
 * off is the offset to generate corresponding low, high in src
 * To be removed in a future release.
 */
 private static void mergeSort(Object[] src,
                                  Object[] dest,
                                  int low,
                                  int high,