File based merge sort

[pixx]

Hi!

I try to solve word count problem (calculate count of each word in files array) with very big set of data - larger than my pc's memory (RAM).

Format of each file:
string: int
string: int

I can save intermediate results in files, but at the end i'll have hundreds of files, each of them is equal in size than my pc's memory.

Can i merge all this intermediate files in 1 with Qt tools? Is there an implementation of merge sort algorithm in qt or community code? Like this http://adaszewski.fachowcy.pl/file-based-merge-sort/ but working with Qt data containers like QMap?

Thank you for help!

[high_flyer]

I can save intermediate results in files

What exactly is an intermediate result?
What is such a result made of in terms of data?
I don't understand why intermediate results should consume so much memory...