This Q&A might help enlighten you on how they work. They're not sort algorithms like bubblesort, they just manipulate the data so that the sort comparison looks at the right thing. The Schwartzian transform is explained there. The GRT just prefixes the data with the sorting information, then strips it off at the end. Essentially, it's a Schwartzian using a scalar as the array.

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In reply to Re^3: Sort array according to a value in each element? by Roy Johnson
in thread Sort array according to a value in each element? by McMahon

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