Attempt at a sorting algorithm

I've been playing around and reading up on some sorting algorithms, and I've decided to try writing my own. It turned out to be quite fast (compared to the others shown in the image below).

I'm very curious to know a little bit about it:

• Does my algorithm already have a name?

• What are the downsides to it (other than it being really stupid to sort { 900000, 1 } with it)?

• Why is it not a good solution in general?

• Any suggestions for optimisation?

static int[] MySort(int[] input)
{
    int minValue = input.Min() - 1;
    int[] tempArr = new int[input.Max() - minValue];
    //{1,3,3,5}   becomes:
    //{1,0,2,0,1} one 1's, two 3's, one 5's.
    for (int i = 0; i < input.Length; i++)
        tempArr[input[i] - minValue - 1] += 1;
    //AddNumbers to old array. and add minValue.

    int g = 0;
    for (int j = 0; j < tempArr.Length; j++)
    {
        if (tempArr[j] != 0)
        {
            for (int i = 0; i < tempArr[j]; i++)
            {
                input[g] = j + minValue + 1;
                g++;
            }
        }
    }
    return input;
}

Performance screenshot:

Does my algorithm already have a name?

It's called counting sort.


What are the downsides to it? (Other than it is really stupid to sort { 900000, 1 } with it.)

That's exactly the major disadvantage of the algorithm: it doesn't work well if the range of values is large.


Why is it not a good solution in general?

Because it can sort only integers. You can't use it to sort floating point numbers, strings or any other type that doesn't behave as an integer.


Any suggestions for optimization?

The condition if (tempArr[j] != 0) is completely useless. If you leave it out, the code will work exactly the same.

StackExchange Code Review Q#31235, answer score: 16