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Basic Searching Algorithms

Linear search iterates through an unsorted array and compares each element to the target value. It has to examine every element which makes it an O(n) operation. Binary search works on a sorted array by comparing the target to the middle element and recursively searching either the upper or lower half. It reduces the search space by half each iteration, requiring O(log n) time on average to find a value. By adapting the number guessing game strategy, binary search is much more efficient than linear search for large datasets.

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WASEEM HAIDER1
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42 views16 pages

Basic Searching Algorithms

Linear search iterates through an unsorted array and compares each element to the target value. It has to examine every element which makes it an O(n) operation. Binary search works on a sorted array by comparing the target to the middle element and recursively searching either the upper or lower half. It reduces the search space by half each iteration, requiring O(log n) time on average to find a value. By adapting the number guessing game strategy, binary search is much more efficient than linear search for large datasets.

Uploaded by

WASEEM HAIDER1
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Basic Searching Algorithms

Linear Search
• Basic Searching Through an Array
• Look at each value in the array
• Compare it to what we’re looking for
• If we see the value we are searching for,
• Return that we’ve found it!
• Return 1 to show the value is in the array
• Otherwise, if we’ve iterated through the entire array
and haven’t located the value,
• Return that the value isn’t in the array
• Return 0 to show the value is not in the array
Linear Search
• Basic Searching Through an Array
• Analyze code:
• Clearly, if the array is unsorted, this algorithm is
optimal
• They ONLY way to be sure that a value isn’t in the array is
to look at every single spot of the array
• Just like you can’t be sure that you DON’T have some
piece of paper or form unless you look through ALL of your
pieces of paper
• But we ask a question:
• Could we find an item in an array faster if it were
already sorted?
Binary Search
• Number Guessing Game from childhood
• Remember the game you most likely played as
a child
• I have a secret number between 1 and 100.
• Make a guess and I’ll tell you whether your guess is
too high or too low.
• Then you guess again. The process continues until
you guess the correct number.
• Your job is to MINIMIZE the number of guesses you
make.
Binary Search
• Number Guessing Game from childhood
• What is the first guess of most people?
• 50
• Why?
• No matter the response (too high or too low), the most
number of possible values for your remaining search
is 50 (either from 1 -49 or 51 -100)
• Any other first guess results in the risk that the
possible remaining values is greater than 50.
• Example: you guess 75
• I respond: too high
• So now you have to guess between 1 and 74
• 74 values to guess from instead of 50
Binary Search
• Number Guessing Game from childhood
• Basic Winning Strategy
• Always guess the number that is halfway between the
lowest possible value in your search range and the
highest possible value in your search range

• Can we now adapt this idea to work for


searching for a given value in an array?
Binary Search
• Array Search
• We are given the following sorted array:

• We are searching for the value, 19


• So where is halfway between?
• One guess would be to look at 2 and 118 and take
their average (60).
• But 60 isn’t even in the list
• And if we look at the number closest to 60
• It is almost at the end of the array
Binary Search
• Array Search
• We quickly realize that if we want to adapt the number guessing game
strategy to searching an array, we MUST search in the middle INDEX of
the array.
• In this case:
• The lowest index is 0
• The highest index is 8
• So the middle index is 4
Binary Search
• Array Search
• Correct Strategy
• We would ask, “is the number I am searching for, 19,
greater or less than the number stored in index 4?
• Index 4 stores 33
• The answer would be “less than”
• So we would modify our search range to in between
index 0 and index 3
• Note that index 4 is no longer in the search space
• We then continue this process
• The second index we’d look at is index 1, since (0+3)/2=1
• Then we’d finally get to index 2, since (2+3)/2 = 2
• And at index 2, we would find the value, 19, in the array
Binary Search
Binary Search
• Binary Search code:
• At the end of each array iteration, all we do is update either
low or high
• This modifies our search region
• Essentially halving it
• Efficiency of Binary Search
• Analysis:
• Let’s analyze how many comparisons (guesses) are necessary when running this algorithm
on an array of n items
First, let’s try n = 100
• After 1 guess, we have 50 items left,
• After 2 guesses, we have 25 items left,
• After 3 guesses, we have 12 items left,
• After 4 guesses, we have 6 items left,
• After 5 guesses, we have 3 items left,
• After 6 guesses, we have 1 item left
• After 7 guesses, we have 0 items left.
Binary Search
• Efficiency of Binary Search
• Analysis:
• Notes:
• The reason for the last iteration is because the number of items left represent the
number of other possible values to search
• We need to reduce this to 0.
• Also, when n is odd, such as when n=25
• We search the middle element, # 13
• There are 12 elements smaller than 13
• And 12 elements bigger than 13
• This is why the number of items is slightly less than ½ in those cases
Binary Search
• Efficiency of Binary Search
• Analysis:
• General case:
• After 1 guess, we have n/2 items left
• After 2 guesses, we have n/4 items left
• After 3 guesses, we have n/8 items left
• After 4 guesses, we have n/16 items left
…
• After k guesses, we have n/2k items left
Binary Search
• Efficiency of Binary Search
• Analysis:
• General case:
• So, after k guesses, we have n/2k items left
• The question is:
• How many ‘k’ guesses do we need to make in order to find our answer?
• Or until we have one and only one guess left to make?
• So we want to get only 1 item left
• If we can find the value that makes the above fraction equal to 1, then we know that in
one more guess, we’ll narrow down the item
Binary Search
Binary Search
• Efficiency of Binary Search
• Analysis:
• Runs in logarithmic (log n) time
• This is MUCH faster than searching linearly
• Consider the following chart:

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