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    Quicksort reputation dates from a time when cache didn't exist. Commented May 29, 2012 at 9:20
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    "why does quicksort outperform other sorting algorithms in practice?" Sure that's true? Show us the real implementation you are refererring to with this statement, and the community will tell you why that specific implementation behaves the way it does. Everything else will lead to wild guessing about non-existent programs. Commented May 29, 2012 at 9:42
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    @DocBrown: Many Quicksort (or variants of it) implementations are chosen in many libraries, arguably because they perform best (I would hope so, that is). So there might just be something about the algorithm that makes Quicksort fast, independently of the implementation. Commented May 29, 2012 at 10:15
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    Someone has to say this for completeness, so I will: Quicksort is not (usually) stable. For this reason, you may not want to use it. Also, for this reason, your default sort may not be a Quicksort even when that is what you want. Commented May 29, 2012 at 14:18
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    @Raphael: Often what is called quick sort is actually some variation like intro sort (used, afaik, in the C++ standard library), not pure quick sort. Commented May 29, 2012 at 17:20