What is the real name of median sort and/or where can I find more material on it.

Question

I'm reading the book Algorithms in a Nutshell published by O'Reilly Media and I was reading the section on sorting algorithms and found one called Median Sort. Since I had never heard of it before and my textbook from CS3 (which covered algorithms) did not have it listed, I googled it and tried looking it up on Wikipedia and found nothing. I would greatly appreciate it if someone could provide the name I could easily look the algorithm up under or point me to other resources about it. Thank you.

Also, from what I can tell about the algorithm, it's essentially Quicksort except it always uses the median value as the pivot. By median value I mean it seems to scan the array of items and pick the middle value as the pivot, not pick the middle item in the array as the pivot. Also, the book mentions a Blum-Floyd-Pratt-Rivest-Tarjan (BFPRT) in relation to the "Median" sort.

Answer 1

Most versions of quicksort pick (for example) the median of three elements (typically the first, middle and last), giving what's normally called a median of 3 Quicksort. Just starting with the middle element as the pivot doesn't usually qualify for any name other than just Quicksort.