Sorting an array to another array C++ - c++

Question

My program have to sort an array in another array.
When I run the program it prints 1 2 3 -858993460 5 -858993460 7.
I can not understand where the mistake is in the code.
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
const int N = 7;
int arr[N] = { 3, 17, 2, 9, 1, 5, 7 };
int max = arr[0];
for (int i = 1; i < N; i++)
{
if (max < arr[i])
max = arr[i];
}
int sort_arr[N];
for (int j = 0; j < N; j++)
{
sort_arr[arr[j] - 1] = arr[j];
}
for (int i = 0; i < N; i++)
{
cout << sort_arr[i] << " ";
}
return 0;
}

Answer 1

Okay lets face the problems in your code.
The "weird" numbers you see there, came from the uninitialzied array sort_arr. What do I mean by uninitialized? Well sort_arr is a little chunck somewhere in your memory. Since a program usually does not clear its memory and rather claims the memory it used as free, the chunk of sort_arr may contain bits and bytes set by another program. The numbers occure since these bytes are interpreted as an integer value. So the first thing to do would be to initialize the array before using it.
sort_arr[N] = { 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 };
Now why did these numbers occure? Well you're probably expecting your algorithm to set all values in sort_arr which would result in an sorted array, right? Well but your algorithm isn't working that well. See this line:
sort_arr[arr[j] - 1] = arr[j];
What happens when j is 1? arr[1] is then evaluated to 17 and 17 - 1 equals 16. So sort_arr[arr[1] - 1] is the same as sort_arr[16] which exceeds the bounds of your array.
If you want to program a sorting algorithm by your self than I would recommend to start with an simple bubble sort algorithm. Otherwise, if you only need to sort the array have a look at the algorithm header. It is fairly simple to use:
#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>
#include <iterator> // << include this to use begin() and end()
using namespace std;
int main()
{
const int N = 7;
int arr[N] = { 3, 17, 2, 9, 1, 5, 7 };
int sort_arr[N] = { 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 };
copy(begin(arr), end(arr), begin(sort_arr));
sort(begin(sort_arr), end(sort_arr));
for (int i = 0; i < N; i++)
{
cout << sort_arr[i] << " ";
}
cout << endl;
}
By the way. You're looking for the biggest value in your array, right? After you have sorted the array sort_arr[N - 1] is the biggest value contained in your array.

Answer 2

If you want to sort a array into another array then one way is you make a copy of the array and then use the sort function in the standard library to sort the second array.
int arr[10];
int b[10];
for(int i=0;i<10;i++)
{
cin>>arr[i];
b[i]=arr[i];
}
sort(b,b+10);
// this sort function will sort the array elements in ascending order and if you want to change the order then just add a comparison function as third arguement to the sort function.

Answer 3

It seems that you think that sort_arr[arr[j] - 1] = arr[j] will sort arr into sort_arr. It won't.
Sorting is already written for you here: http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/algorithm/sort You can use that like this:
copy(cbegin(arr), cend(arr), begin(sort_arr));
sort(begin(sort_arr), end(sort_arr));
Live Example

Answer 4

My guess is this is an attempt to implement a type of counting sort. Note that variable length arrays aren't normally allowed in C++ or some versions of C. You could use _alloca() to allocate off the stack to get the equivalent of a variable length array: int * sort_arr = (int *)_alloca(max * sizeof(int)); .
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
const int N = 7;
// assuming range of values is 1 to ...
int arr[N] = { 3, 17, 2, 9, 1, 5, 7 };
int max = arr[0];
for (int i = 1; i < N; i++)
{
if (max < arr[i])
max = arr[i];
}
int sort_arr[max];
for (int i = 0; i < max; i++)
{
sort_arr[i] = 0;
}
for (int j = 0; j < N; j++)
{
sort_arr[arr[j] - 1]++;
}
for (int i = 0; i < max; i++)
{
while(sort_arr[i])
{
cout << i+1 << " ";
sort_arr[i]--;
}
}
return 0;
}