title: How could we save I/O operations in a two phase sort if we have more buffers than sub-lists?
body: <p>I am reading <a href="https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/com/0131873253" rel="nofollow noreferrer" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Database Systems: The Complete Book</a>. In one of it's chapters it asks the reader on how would they save I/O operations in a two phase sort if there are more buffers than sub-lists in the second phase.</p>
  
  <p>My initial thought reading it was that if we have a big number of buffers then the two-phase algorithm would simply reduce to a one phase algorithm. It seems to straight forward though so I am not sure if I am correct.</p>
  
  <p>What is the answer to the question above?</p>