--- a/scripts/general/sortrows.m	Wed Feb 11 01:48:39 2009 -0500
+++ b/scripts/general/sortrows.m	Wed Feb 11 15:25:53 2009 +0100
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 ## Copyright (C) 2000, 2005, 2007 Daniel Calvelo
+## Copyright (C) 2009 Jaroslav Hajek
 ##
 ## This file is part of Octave.
 ##
@@ -32,10 +33,20 @@
 
   default_mode = "ascend";
   other_mode = "descend";
-  if (nargin < 2)
-    indices = [1:size(m,2)]';
-    mode(1:size(m,2)) = {default_mode};
+
+  if (issparse (m))
+    error ("sortrows: sparse matrices not yet supported");
+  endif
+
+  ## If the sort is homogeneous, we use the built-in faster algorithm.
+  if (nargin == 1)
+    i = __sortrows_idx__ (m, default_mode);
+  elseif (all (c > 0))
+    i = __sortrows_idx__ (m(:,c), default_mode);
+  elseif (all (c < 0))
+    i = __sortrows_idx__ (m(:,c), other_mode);
   else
+    ## Otherwise, fall back to the old algorithm
     for ii = 1:length (c);
       if (c(ii) < 0)
         mode{ii} = other_mode;
@@ -44,30 +55,21 @@
       endif
     endfor
     indices = abs(c(:));
-  endif
 
-  if (ischar (m))
-    s = toascii (m);
-  else
-    s = m;
+    ## Since sort is 'stable' the order of identical elements will be
+    ## preserved, so by traversing the sort indices in reverse order we
+    ## will make sure that identical elements in index i are subsorted by
+    ## index j.
+    indices = flipud (indices);
+    mode = flipud (mode');
+    i = [1:size(m,1)]';
+    for ii = 1:length (indices);
+      [trash, idx] = sort (m(i, indices(ii)), mode{ii});
+      i = i(idx);
+    endfor
   endif
 
-  ## Since sort is 'stable' the order of identical elements will be
-  ## preserved, so by traversing the sort indices in reverse order we
-  ## will make sure that identical elements in index i are subsorted by
-  ## index j.
-  indices = flipud (indices);
-  mode = flipud (mode');
-  i = [1:size(m,1)]';
-  for ii = 1:length (indices);
-    [trash, idx] = sort (s(:,indices(ii)), mode{ii});
-    s = s(idx,:);
-    i = i(idx);
-  endfor
-
-  if (ischar (m))
-    s = char (s);
-  endif
+  s = m(i,:);
 
 endfunction