// put sorted items in a big array so we can binary search it later
// validate the sorted queue at the same time
IBigArray bigArray = new BigArrayImpl(MergeSortHelper.SAMPLE_DIR, "sample_array");
bigArray.append(previousItem.getBytes());
for(int i = 1; i < targetSize; i++) {
String item = new String(targetSortedQueue.dequeue());
if (item.compareTo(previousItem) < 0) {
System.err.println("target queue is not in sorted order!");
}
bigArray.append(item.getBytes());
previousItem = item;