Data Structure-Search

Kaustuv Bhattacharjee
University of Engineering & Management, Kolkata
 Search-Introduction
• Searching means to find whether a particular value is
present in a collection of data or not
• If the value is present in the collection, then
searching is said to be successful and the searching
process gives the location of that value in the array
• If the value is not present in the collection, the
searching process displays an appropriate message
and in this case searching is said to be unsuccessful

Kaustuv Bhattacharjee, UEM Kolkata

 Search-Methods
• Linear Search
• Binary Search
• Interpolation Search

Kaustuv Bhattacharjee, UEM Kolkata

 Linear Search
• (Also known as sequential search)
• Compare the value to be searched with every
element of the array one by one in a sequence until a
match is found
• Mostly used in an unordered list (data elements are
not sorted) of elements

Kaustuv Bhattacharjee, UEM Kolkata

 Linear Search-Algorithm
LINEAR_SEARCH(A, N, VAL)
Step 1: [INITIALIZE] SET POS = -1
Step 2: [INITIALIZE] SET I = 1
Step 3: Repeat Step 4 while I<=N
Step 4: IF A[I] = VAL
SET POS = I
PRINT POS
Go to Step 6
[END OF IF]
SET I = I + 1
[END OF LOOP]
Step 5: IF POS = –1
PRINT “VALUE IS NOT PRESENT IN THE ARRAY”
STEP 6: EXIT

Kaustuv Bhattacharjee, UEM Kolkata

 Linear Search-Time Complexity
• Linear search executes in O(n) time where n is the number of
elements in the array.
• The best case of linear search is when VAL is equal to the first
element of the array. In this case, only one comparison will be
made.
• Likewise, the worst case will happen when either VAL is not
present in the array or it is equal to the last element of the
array. In both the cases, n comparisons will have to be made.

Kaustuv Bhattacharjee, UEM Kolkata

 Binary Search
• A searching algorithm that works efficiently with a sorted list
• Repeatedly divide the search interval in half
• If the value of the search key is less than the item in the
middle of the interval, narrow the interval to the lower half.
• Otherwise narrow it to the upper half.
• Repeatedly check until the value is found or the interval is
empty.

Kaustuv Bhattacharjee, UEM Kolkata

 Binary Search-Example
• Consider an array A[] that is declared and initialized as
int A[] = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10};
and the value to be searched is VAL = 9.
• The algorithm will proceed in the following manner:
BEG = 0, END = 10, MID = (0 + 10)/2 = 5
• Now, VAL = 9 and A[MID] = A[5] = 5. A[5] is less than VAL, therefore, search for
the value in the second half of the array. So, change the values of BEG and
MID.
• Now, BEG = MID + 1 = 6, END = 10, MID = (6 + 10)/2 =16/2 = 8
VAL = 9 and A[MID] = A[8] = 8
A[8] is less than VAL, therefore, search for the value in the second half of the segment.
So, again change the values of BEG and MID.
Now, BEG = MID + 1 = 9, END = 10, MID = (9 + 10)/2 = 9
Now, VAL = 9 and A[MID] = 9.
So the element is found at position MID, i.e. 9.

Kaustuv Bhattacharjee, UEM Kolkata

 Binary Search-Algorithm
BINARY_SEARCH(A, lower_bound, upper_bound, VAL)
Step 1: [INITIALIZE] SET BEG = lower_bound
END = upper_bound, POS = - 1
Step 2: Repeat Steps 3 and 4 while BEG <= END
Step 3: SET MID = (BEG + END)/2
Step 4: IF A[MID] = VAL
SET POS = MID
PRINT POS
Go to Step 6
ELSE IF A[MID] > VAL
SET END = MID - 1
ELSE
SET BEG = MID + 1
[END OF IF]
[END OF LOOP]
Step 5: IF POS = -1
PRINT “VALUE IS NOT PRESENT IN THE ARRAY”
[END OF IF]
Step 6: EXIT
Kaustuv Bhattacharjee, UEM Kolkata
 Binary Search-Time Complexity
• The complexity of the binary search algorithm can be
expressed as f(n), where n is the number of elements in the
array.
• The complexity of the algorithm is calculated depending on
the number of comparisons that are made.
• In the binary search algorithm, we see that with each
comparison, the size of the segment where search has to be
made is reduced to half.
• Thus, we can say that, in order to locate a particular value in
the array, the total number of comparisons that will be made
is given as 2f(n) = n or log2n

Kaustuv Bhattacharjee, UEM Kolkata

 Interpolation Search

• (Also known as Extrapolation search)

• A searching algorithm that works efficiently with a sorted list
• In each step of interpolation search, the remaining search space for the
value to be found is calculated.
• The calculation is done based on the values at the bounds of the search
space and the value to be searched.
• The value found at this estimated position is then compared with the
value being searched for.
• If the two values are equal, then the search is complete.
• In case the values are not equal then depending on the comparison, the
remaining search space is reduced to the part before or after the
estimated position.

Kaustuv Bhattacharjee, UEM Kolkata

 Interpolation Search-Example
• Given a list of numbers a[] = {1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19,
21}. Search for value 19 using interpolation search technique.
• Solution
Low = 0, High = 10, VAL = 19, a[Low] = 1, a[High] = 21
Middle = Low + (High – Low)×((VAL – a[Low]) /(a[High] –
a[Low] ))
= 0 +(10 – 0) × ((19 – 1) / (21 – 1) )
= 0 + 10 × 0.9 = 9
a[middle] = a[9] = 19 which is equal to value to be searched.

Kaustuv Bhattacharjee, UEM Kolkata

 Interpolation Search-Algorithm
INTERPOLATION_SEARCH (A, lower_bound, upper_bound, VAL)
Step 1: [INITIALIZE] SET LOW = lower_bound, HIGH = upper_bound, POS = –1
Step 2: Repeat Steps 3 to 4 while LOW <= HIGH
Step 3: SET MID = LOW + (HIGH – LOW) × ((VAL – A[LOW]) / (A[HIGH] –
A[LOW]))
Step 4: IF VAL = A[MID]
POS = MID
PRINT POS
Go to Step 6
ELSE IF VAL < A[MID]
SET HIGH = MID – 1
ELSE
SET LOW = MID + 1
[END OF IF]
[END OF LOOP]
Step 5: IF POS = –1
PRINT "VALUE IS NOT PRESENT IN THE ARRAY"
[END OF IF]
Step 6: EXIT
Kaustuv Bhattacharjee, UEM Kolkata
Interpolation Search-Time Complexity
• When n elements of a list to be sorted are uniformly
distributed (average case), interpolation search makes
about log(log n) comparisons.
• In the worst case, that is when the elements increase
exponentially, the algorithm can make up to O(n)
comparisons.

Kaustuv Bhattacharjee, UEM Kolkata

 Binary Search & Interpolation Search-
Comparison
• Binary search always selects the middle value of the
remaining search space and discards half of the values
based on the comparison between the value found at
the estimated position and the value to be searched.
• In interpolation search, interpolation is used to find an
item near the one being searched for, and then linear
search is used to find the exact item.

Kaustuv Bhattacharjee, UEM Kolkata

 Assignments
• Write a program to search an element in an array using linear
search.
• Write a program to search an element in an array using binary
search.
• Write a program to search an element in an array using
interpolation search.

Kaustuv Bhattacharjee, UEM Kolkata