We introduce a new online algorithm for the multiselection problem which
performs a sequence of selection queries on a given unsorted array. We show
that our online algorithm is 1-competitive in terms of data comparisons. In
particular, we match the bounds (up to lower order terms) from the optimal
offline algorithm proposed by Kaligosi et al. [ICALP 2005]. 

We provide experimental results comparing online and offline algorithms. These
experiments show that our online algorithms require fewer comparisons than the
best-known offline algorithms. Interestingly, our experiments suggest that our
optimal online algorithm (when used to sort the array) requires fewer
comparisons than both quicksort and mergesort.