From 8d7d08ff054ee175cd468b4e150dac713072608f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Andrew Lamb <andrew@nerdnetworks.org>
Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2023 10:41:55 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] Improve documentation for `sort()`

---
 datafusion/core/src/physical_plan/sorts/sort.rs | 8 ++++++--
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/datafusion/core/src/physical_plan/sorts/sort.rs b/datafusion/core/src/physical_plan/sorts/sort.rs
index a12d2a62315d..ed7af311fb8d 100644
--- a/datafusion/core/src/physical_plan/sorts/sort.rs
+++ b/datafusion/core/src/physical_plan/sorts/sort.rs
@@ -291,8 +291,12 @@ impl ExternalSorter {
     /// Returns the final sorted output of all batches inserted via
     /// [`Self::insert_batch`] as a stream of [`RecordBatch`]es.
     ///
-    /// This may be an in memory sort/merge if all input fit into memory, or
-    /// a streaming merge from spill files on disk.
+    /// This process could either be:
+    ///
+    /// 1. An in-memory sort/merge (if the input fit in memory)
+    ///
+    /// 2. A combined streaming merge incorporating both in-memory
+    /// batches and data from spill files on disk.
     fn sort(&mut self) -> Result<SendableRecordBatchStream> {
         if self.spilled_before() {
             let mut streams = vec![];