Adding a counter

What function do they use to compare. You could let these functions count the number of time they are called.

I would imagine you would
just do a
count = count + 1;
in your loop and it would
tell you how many comps there
were.

post the loop in your code

Adding the counter to the compare function is more robust. You can not forget to add (remove) it to (from) any loop.

some questions to get the problem:
1) do you want one counter for both functions (declared in the calling function) or one for each function?
2) will the count be used outside of the two functions?
3) do the functions return a value yet?

Make sure the counter is declared static.

Only one counter for both functions. The # of compares and the number of items in the array(hopefully I can get to output file(appended mode).

static int count_compares = 0;

void reset_counter() { count_compares = 0; }

int compare1(const Something& s1, const Something& s2)
{
  ++count_compares;
  // .... other stuff
}

int compare2(const SomethingElse& s1, const SomethingElse& s2)
{
  ++count_compares;
  // .... other stuff
}

void f()
{
   reset_counter();
   ....
   InsertionSort();
   out << "Number of compare: " << count_compares << endl;
   ....
}

.....
Try reading the thread first.