Why do people who like to ask O(N) questions have this obsession with sorting al...

cperciva · on Oct 8, 2012

Because in the 1960s, sorting records was what computers spent most of their time doing.

At this point, it's mostly a "because that's how we've always introduced algorithms and complexity" thing.

sukuriant · on Oct 9, 2012

It's still what computers often spend a lot of time doing. What do you think your database engine is doing most of the time? Those indexed columns aren't just there to smile warmly upon your data.