Robust Bubble Sort in VBA

Question

I'm creating a robust bubble sort for VBA when sorting stored arrays in VBA. Mostly this would be used when an array is stored in a single cell with a delimiter. Otherwise, one could just sort on the sheet during intake.

I'm trying to make this as robust as I can so it can be used as a tool rather than just continually rewriting it for each task when I need it. It can sort ascending or descending, the intention being that one may be able to use it to get minimums, maximums and medians.

I'd like to make it able to sort alphabetically, but right now it only sorts numbers. I mention this because I'd like to refactor the procedure that turns the variant array (hence the area with extra white space) into the double array, but I can't figure out an optimal way to do that without sending copies of arrays around, so it's just sitting in the TestBubbleSorting procedure right now. Any suggestions on that refactoring would be awesome.

Also, if the bubble sort method isn't the most robust sort algorithm to be using, I'd love to know that so I can try again.

Example input would be something like this

3
7,3,5
15,20,40
300,550,137

Option Explicit
Public Sub TestBubbleSorting()
    Const DELIMITER As String = ","
    Dim targetSheet As Worksheet
    Set targetSheet = ActiveSheet
    Dim numberOfArrays As Long
    numberOfArrays = targetSheet.Cells(1, 1)
    Dim rawArray As Variant
    Dim arrayToSort() As Double
    Dim targetRow As Long
    Dim targetElement As Long
    Dim numberOfElements As Long
    Dim inputValue As String
    Dim outputValue As String

    For targetRow = 2 To numberOfArrays + 1
        inputValue = targetSheet.Cells(targetRow, 1)
        If Replace(inputValue, DELIMITER, vbNullString) = vbNullString Then GoTo NextIteration

        rawArray = GetArrayFromCell(inputValue, DELIMITER)

        numberOfElements = UBound(rawArray) + 1
        ReDim arrayToSort(1 To numberOfElements)
        For targetElement = 0 To numberOfElements - 1
            arrayToSort(targetElement + 1) = CDbl(rawArray(targetElement))
        Next

        BubbleSortNumbers arrayToSort(), True

        For targetElement = 1 To numberOfElements - 1
            outputValue = outputValue & arrayToSort(targetElement) & DELIMITER
        Next
        outputValue = outputValue & arrayToSort(numberOfElements)
        targetSheet.Cells(targetRow, 2) = outputValue
        outputValue = vbNullString
NextIteration:
    Next
End Sub

Private Function GetArrayFromCell(ByVal inputValue As String, ByVal DELIMITER As String) As Variant
    GetArrayFromCell = Split(inputValue, DELIMITER)
End Function

Private Sub BubbleSortNumbers(ByRef arrayToSort() As Double, Optional ByVal sortAscending As Boolean = True)
    Dim temporaryHigher As Double
    Dim temporaryLower As Double
    Dim targetElement As Long
    Dim exchangeMade As Boolean
    If sortAscending Then
        Do
            exchangeMade = False
            For targetElement = 1 To UBound(arrayToSort) - 1
                If arrayToSort(targetElement) > arrayToSort(targetElement + 1) Then
                    exchangeMade = True
                    temporaryHigher = arrayToSort(targetElement)
                    arrayToSort(targetElement) = arrayToSort(targetElement + 1)
                    arrayToSort(targetElement + 1) = temporaryHigher
                End If
            Next targetElement
        Loop While exchangeMade
    Else
         Do
            exchangeMade = False
            For targetElement = UBound(arrayToSort) To 2 Step -1
                If arrayToSort(targetElement) > arrayToSort(targetElement - 1) Then
                    exchangeMade = True
                    temporaryLower = arrayToSort(targetElement)
                    arrayToSort(targetElement) = arrayToSort(targetElement - 1)
                    arrayToSort(targetElement - 1) = temporaryLower
                End If
            Next targetElement
        Loop While exchangeMade
    End If
End Sub

Answer 1

In large I think the sort function is right out of the book of bubblesort.

IMO your naming is a little overdone. The long names are for an inexperienced eye hard to read.

The ascending and descending sort loops are essentially the same except for the direction of the comparation, so no need for backward loop or special temporary variables etc.

The swap mechanism calls for a swap function.

All in all find below a revised version of the sort function.

Private Sub Swap(vector() As Double, i As Long, j As Long)
    Dim tmp As Double
    tmp = vector(i)
    vector(i) = vector(j)
    vector(j) = tmp
End Sub

Private Sub BubbleSortNumbers(vector() As Double, Optional sortAscending As Boolean = True)
    Dim index As Long
    Dim isChanged As Boolean
    Dim first As Long
    Dim last As Long

    first = 1
    last = UBound(vector) - 1

    If sortAscending Then
        Do
            isChanged = False
            For index = first To last
                If vector(index) > vector(index + 1) Then
                    isChanged = True
                    Swap vector, index, index + 1
                End If
            Next index
            last = last - 1 ' The not yet positioned largest value "rabbits" down to its final position for every loop, so there is no need for checking it again.
        Loop While isChanged
    Else
        Do
            isChanged = False
            For index = first To last
                If vector(index) < vector(index + 1) Then
                    isChanged = True
                    Swap vector, index, index + 1
                End If
            Next index
            last = last - 1 
        Loop While isChanged
    End If
End Sub

All that said, bubble sort is not the most efficient algorithm, so if you have large data sets to sort I will suggest other more powerfull algorithms like quicksort, mergesort, heapsort or combsort where quicksort and combsort maybe are the easiest to implement (they are all well documented on Wikipedia).