Is the sorting algorithm used by .NET's `Array.Sort()` method a stable algorithm?

Question

Is the sorting algorithm used by .NET\'s Array.Sort() method a stable algorithm?

Answer 1

From MSDN:

This implementation performs an unstable sort; that is, if two elements are equal, their order might not be preserved. In contrast, a stable sort preserves the order of elements that are equal.

The sort uses introspective sort. (Quicksort in version 4.0 and earlier of the .NET framework).

If you need a stable sort, you can use Enumerable.OrderBy.