How can I sort numbers lexicographically?

Question

Here is the scenario.

I am given an array \'A\' of integers. The size of the array is not fixed. The function that I am supposed to write may be called once with an

Answer 1

If you're going for space-wise efficiency, I'd try just doing the work in the comparison function of the sort

int compare(int a, int b) {
   // convert a to string
   // convert b to string
   // return -1 if a < b, 0 if they are equal, 1 if a > b
}

If it's too slow (it's slower than preprocessing, for sure), keep track of the conversions somewhere so that the comparison function doesn't keep having to do them.