One of the main problems with sorting performance is moving data.  Shuffling records can be time-expensive, but also can be avoided. I will discuss some ways of sorting keys without moving records. For this demonstration, the techniques will sort data which are only single fields acting as keys. In live databases, you will use whole records that include the key fields. (Keys are fields that you can use the >, <, and = symbols for comparison purposes.)

A disclaimer before I begin: For describing these algorithms I will use pseudo-language. In this way, concepts of these algorithms will be understandable to anyone regardless of the programming language.