Careful. The high-water-mark algorithm is actually slower than sorting to get the highest value, for some small number of items. Think of the few lines of Perl code that would have to be repeatedly executed for each item. Then think of how little work it takes directly in C to sort that list instead.

Yes, surprising when I first heard it too.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.

In reply to •Re^2: Finding oldest file in directory by merlyn
in thread Finding oldest file in directory by Nitrox

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