Stable topN?

[Xinok via Digitalmars-d]

On Tuesday, 24 June 2014 at 04:40:48 UTC, Peter Alexander wrote:
> On Monday, 23 June 2014 at 22:47:20 UTC, Xinok wrote:
>> What do you all think? Do you agree with my definition of 
>> stable topN? Do you know of a better algorithm/approach for 
>> implementing this function?
>
> I agree with your definition, and can't think of a better
> algorithm, but wouldn't a stable sort have the same effect as
> your algorithm? Both are O(n lg(n)) time and O(n) space.

A stable sort would lose the original ordering of the elements 
though. Furthermore, the entire point of the topN function is to 
be faster than simply sorting the range.