Searching Elements in an Array:

Linear and Binary Search

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 1

 Searching

• Check if a given element (called key) occurs

in the array.
– Example: array of student records; rollno can be
the key.
• Two methods to be discussed:
– If the array elements are unsorted.
• Linear search
– If the array elements are sorted.
• Binary search

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 2

 Linear Search

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 3

 Basic Concept

• Basic idea:
– Start at the beginning of the array.
– Inspect elements one by one to see if it matches the key.
• Time complexity:
– A measure of how long an algorithm takes to run.
– If there are n elements in the array:
• Best case:
match found in first element (1 search operation)
• Worst case:
no match found, or match found in the last element
(n search operations)
• Average case:
(n + 1) / 2 search operations

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 4

 Contd.
/* The function returns the array index where the
match is found. It returns -1 if there is no
match. */

int linear_search (int a[], int size, int key)

{
int pos = 0;
while ((pos < size) && (a[pos] != key))
pos++;
if (pos < size)
return pos; /* Return the position of match */
return -1; /* No match found */
}

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 5

 Contd.

int x[]= {12, -3, 78, 67, 6, 50, 19, 10};

• Trace the following calls :

search (x, 8, 6) ; Returns 4
search (x, 8, 5) ;

Returns -1

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 6

 Binary Search

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 7

 Basic Concept

• Binary search works if the array is sorted.

– Look for the target in the middle.
– If you don’t find it, you can ignore half of the
array, and repeat the process with the other
half.
• In every step, we reduce the number of
elements to search in by half.

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 8

 The Basic Strategy

• What we want?
– Find split between values larger and smaller than key:
0 n-1
x: <=key >key
L R

– Situation while searching:

• Initially L and R contains the indices of first and last elements.
– Look at the element at index [(L+R)/2].
• Move L or R to the middle depending on the outcome of test.

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 9

 Contd.
/* If key appears in x[0..size-1], return its location, pos
such that x[pos]==key. If not found, return -1 */

int bin_search (int x[], int size, int key)

{
int L, R, mid;
_________________;
while ( ____________ )
{
__________________;
}
_________________ ;
}

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 10

 The basic search iteration

int bin_search (int x[], int size, int key)

{
int L, R, mid;
_________________;
while ( ____________ )
{
mid = (L + R) / 2;
if (x[mid] <= key)
L = mid;
else R = mid;
}
_________________ ;
}

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 11

 Loop termination

int bin_search (int x[], int size, int key)

{
int L, R, mid;
_________________;
while ( L+1 != R )
{
mid = (L + R) / 2;
if (x[mid] <= key)
L = mid;
else R = mid;
}
_________________ ;
}

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 12

 Return result

int bin_search (int x[], int size, int key)

{
int L, R, mid;
_________________;
while ( L+1 != R )
{
mid = (L + R) / 2;
if (x[mid] <= key)
L = mid;
else R = mid;
}
if (L >= 0 && x[L] == key) return L;
else return -1;
}

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 13

 Initialization

int bin_search (int x[], int size, int key)

{
int L, R, mid;
L = -1; R = size;
while ( L+1 != R )
{
mid = (L + R) / 2;
if (x[mid] <= key)
L = mid;
else R = mid;
}
if (L >= 0 && x[L] == key) return L;
else return -1;
}

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 14

 Binary Search Examples

Sorted array

-17 -5 3 6 12 21 45 63 50

L= –1; R= 9; x[4]=12;
Trace :
L= –1; R=4; x[1]= –5;
binsearch (x, 9, 3); L= 1; R=4; x[2]=3;
L=2; R=4; x[3]=6;
binsearch (x, 9, 145); L=2; R=3; return L;

binsearch (x, 9, 45);

We may modify the algorithm by checking equality with x[mid].

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 15

 Is it worth the trouble ?

• Suppose that the array x has 1000 elements.

• Ordinary search
– If key is a member of x, it would require 500 comparisons
on the average.
• Binary search
– after 1st compare, left with 500 elements.
– after 2nd compare, left with 250 elements.
– After at most 10 steps, you are done.

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 16

 Time Complexity

• If there are n elements in the array.

– Number of searches required:
log2n
2k= n, where k is the
• For n = 64 (say). number of steps.
– Initially, list size = 64.
– After first compare, list size = 32.
– After second compare, list size = 16.
log264 = 6
– After third compare, list size = 8.
log21024 = 10
– …….
– After sixth compare, list size = 1.

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 17

 Sorting

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 18

 The Basic Problem
• Given an array
x[0], x[1], ... , x[size-1]
reorder entries so that
x[0] <= x[1] <= . . . <= x[size-1]

• List is in non-decreasing order.

• We can also sort a list of elements in non-

increasing order.

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 19

 Example

• Original list:
10, 30, 20, 80, 70, 10, 60, 40, 70

• Sorted in non-decreasing order:

10, 10, 20, 30, 40, 60, 70, 70, 80

• Sorted in non-increasing order:

80, 70, 70, 60, 40, 30, 20, 10, 10

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 20

 Sorting Problem

• What we want ?
– Data sorted in order
size-1
0
x: Unsorted list

Sorted list

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 21

 Selection Sort

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 22

 How it works?

• General situation :
0 k size-1
x: smallest elements, sorted remainder, unsorted

• Step :
• Find smallest element, mval, in x[k..size-1]
• Swap smallest element with x[k], then
increase k.
0 k mval size-1

swap
Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 23
 Subproblem

/* Yield index of smallest element in x[k..size-1];*/

int min_loc (int x[], int k, int size)

{
int j, pos;

pos = k;
for (j=k+1; j<size; j++)
if (x[j] < x[pos])
pos = j;
return pos;
}

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 24

 The main sorting function
/* Sort x[0..size-1] in non-decreasing order */

int sel_sort (int x[], int size)

{ int k, m;

for (k=0; k<size-1; k++)

{
m = min_loc (x, k, size);
temp = a[k];
a[k] = a[m]; SWAP
a[m] = temp;
}
}

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 25

int main()
{
int x[ ]={-45,89,-65,87,0,3,-23,19,56,21,76,-50};
int i;
for(i=0;i<12;i++)
printf("%d ",x[i]);
printf("\n");
-45 89 -65 87 0 3 -23 19 56 21 76 -50
sel_sort(x,12); -65 -50 -45 -23 0 3 19 21 56 76 87 89
for(i=0;i<12;i++)
printf("%d ",x[i]);
printf("\n");
}

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 26

 Example

x: 3 12 -5 6 142 21 -17 45
x: -17 -5 3 6 12 21 142 45
x: -17 12 -5 6 142 21 3 45
x: -17 -5 3 6 12 21 142 45
x: -17 -5 12 6 142 21 3 45
x: -17 -5 3 6 12 21 45 142
x: -17 -5 3 6 142 21 12 45

x: -17 -5 3 6 142 21 12 45

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 27

 Analysis

• How many steps are needed to sort n

items ?
– Total number of steps proportional to n2.
– No. of comparisons?
(n-1)+(n-2)+……+1= n(n-1)/2

Of the order of n2

– Worst Case? Best Case? Average Case?

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 28

 Insertion Sort

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 29

 How it works?

• General situation :
0 i size-1
x: sorted remainder, unsorted

i Compare and
shift till x[i] is
larger.
i

0 j size-1

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 30

 Insertion Sort

void insert_sort (int list[], int size)

{
int i,j,item;

for (i=1; i<size; i++)

{
item = list[i] ;
for (j=i-1; (j>=0)&& (list[j] > i); j--)
list[j+1] = list[j];
list[j+1] = item ;
}
}

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 31

int main()
{
int x[ ]={-45,89,-65,87,0,3,-23,19,56,21,76,-50};
int i;
for(i=0;i<12;i++)
printf("%d ",x[i]);
printf("\n");
-45 89 -65 87 0 3 -23 19 56 21 76 -50
insert_sort(x,12); -65 -50 -45 -23 0 3 19 21 56 76 87 89
for(i=0;i<12;i++)
printf("%d ",x[i]);
printf("\n");
}

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 32

 Time Complexity

• Number of comparisons and shifting:

– Worst case?
1 + 2 + 3 + …… + (n-1) = n(n-1)/2

– Best case?
1 + 1 + …… to (n-1) terms = (n-1)

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 33

 Bubble Sort

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 34

 How it works?

• The sorting process proceeds in several

passes.
– In every pass we go on comparing neighboring
pairs, and swap them if out of order.
– In every pass, the largest of the elements under
considering will bubble to the top (i.e., the right).
10 5 17 11 -3 12
5 10 17 11 -3 12
5 10 17 11 -3 12
5 10 11 17 -3 12
5 10 11 -3 17 12
Largest
5 10 11 -3 12 17

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 35

• How the passes proceed?
– In pass 1, we consider index 0 to n-1.
– In pass 2, we consider index 0 to n-2.
– In pass 3, we consider index 0 to n-3.
– ……
– ……
– In pass n-1, we consider index 0 to 1.

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 36

 Bubble Sort
void swap(int *x, int *y) void bubble_sort
{ (int x[], int n)
int tmp = *x; {
*x = *y; int i,j;
*y = tmp;
} for (i=n-1; i>0; i--)
for (j=0; j<i; j++)
if (x[j] > x[j+1])
swap(&x[j],&x[j+1]);
}

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 37

int main()
{
int x[ ]={-45,89,-65,87,0,3,-23,19,56,21,76,-50};
int i;
for(i=0;i<12;i++)
printf("%d ",x[i]);
printf("\n");
-45 89 -65 87 0 3 -23 19 56 21 76 -50
bubble_sort(x,12); -65 -50 -45 -23 0 3 19 21 56 76 87 89
for(i=0;i<12;i++)
printf("%d ",x[i]);
printf("\n");
}

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 38

 Time Complexity

• Number of comparisons :
– Worst case?

1 + 2 + 3 + …… + (n-1) = n(n-1)/2

– Best case?
Same

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 39

• How do you make best case with (n-1)
comparisons only?
– By maintaining a variable flag, to check if
there has been any swaps in a given pass.
– If not, the array is already sorted.

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 40

 void bubble_sort
(int x[], int n)
{
int i,j;
int flag = 0;

for (i=n-1; i>0; i--)

{
for (j=0; j<i; j++)
if (x[j] > x[j+1])
{
swap(&x[j],&x[j+1]);
flag = 1;
}
if (flag == 0) return;
}

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 41

 Some Efficient Sorting Algorithms

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 42

• Two of the most popular sorting algorithms are
based on divide-and-conquer approach.
– Quick sort
– Merge sort
• Basic concept (divide-and-conquer method):
sort (list)
{
if the list has length greater than 1
{
Partition the list into lowlist and highlist;
sort (lowlist);
sort (highlist);
combine (lowlist, highlist);
}
}

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 43

 Quick Sort

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 44

 How it works?

• At every step, we select a pivot element in

the list (usually the first element).
– We put the pivot element in the final position
of the sorted list.
– All the elements less than or equal to the pivot
element are to the left.
– All the elements greater than the pivot element
are to the right.

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 45

 Partitioning

0 size-1
x:
pivot

Values smaller Values greater

Perform Perform
partitioning partitioning

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 46

 Example

26 33 35 29 19 12 22
22 35 29 19 12 33
22 12 29 19 35 33 The partitioning
22 12 19 29 35 33 process
19 22 12 26 29 35 33

Recursively carry out the partitioning

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 47

void print (int x[], int low, int high)
{
int i;
for(i=low; i<=high; i++)
printf(" %d", x[i]);
printf("\n");
}

void swap (int *a, int *b)

{
int tmp=*a;
*a=*b;
*b=tmp;
}
Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 48
void partition (int x[], int low, int high)
{
int i = low+1, j = high;
int pivot = x[low];
if (low >= high) return;
while (i<j) {
while ((x[i]<pivot) && (i<high)) i++;
while ((x[j]>=pivot) && (j>low)) j--;
if (i<j) swap (&x[i], &x[j]);
}
if (j==high) {
swap (&x[j], &x[low]);
partition (x, low, high-1);
}
else
if (i==low+1)
partition (x, low+1, high);
else {
swap (&x[j], &x[low]);
partition (x, low, j-1);
partition (x, j+1, high);
}
}
Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 49
int main (int argc, char *argv[])
{
int *x;
int i=0;
int num;
num = argc - 1;
x = (int *) malloc(num * sizeof(int));

for (i=0; i<num; i++)

x[i] = atoi(argv[i+1]);
partition(x,0,num-1);
printf(“Sorted list: ");
print (x,0,num-1);
}

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 50

 Trace of Partitioning

./a.out 45 -56 78 90 -3 -6 123 0 -3 45 69 68

45 -56 78 90 -3 -6 123 0 -3 45 69 68

-6 -56 -3 0 -3 45 123 90 78 45 69 68

-56 -6 -3 0 -3 68 90 78 45 69 123
-3 0 -3 45 68 78 90 69
-3 0 69 78 90

Sorted list: -56 -6 -3 -3 0 45 45 68 69 78 90 123

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 51

 Time Complexity

• Worst case:
n2 ==> list is already sorted

• Average case:
n log2n

• Statistically, quick sort has been found to

be one of the fastest algorithms.

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 52

• Corollary of quick sort:
– Given a list of numbers stored in an array,
determine how many numbers are smaller than
a given number p?
– Given a list of integers (negative and non-
negative), reorder the list so that all negative
numbers precede the non-negative ones.

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 53

 Merge Sort

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 54

 Merge Sort

Input Array

Part-I Part-II

Part-I Part-II Part-I Part-II

Merge Split
Sorted Arrays

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 55

 Merging two sorted arrays
pa pb

a Sorted Array b Sorted Array

0 m 0 n

c Merged sorted array

0 m+n-1

Move and copy elements pointed by pa if its value is smaller

than the element pointed by pb in (m+n-1) operations; otherwise,
copy elements pointed by pb .

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 56

 Example

• Initial array A contains 14 elements:

– 66, 33, 40, 22, 55, 88, 60, 11, 80, 20, 50, 44, 77, 30
• Pass 1 :: Merge each pair of elements
– (33, 66) (22, 40) (55, 88) (11, 60) (20, 80) (44, 50) (30, 70)
• Pass 2 :: Merge each pair of pairs
– (22, 33, 40, 66) (11, 55, 60, 88) (20, 44, 50, 80) (30, 77)
• Pass 3 :: Merge each pair of sorted quadruplets
– (11, 22, 33, 40, 55, 60, 66, 88) (20, 30, 44, 50, 77, 80)
• Pass 4 :: Merge the two sorted subarrays to get the final list
– (11, 20, 22, 30, 33, 40, 44, 50, 55, 60, 66, 77, 80, 88)

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 57

 void merge_sort (int *a, int n)
{
int i, j, k, m;
int *b, *c;

if (n>1) {
k = n/2; m = n-k;
b = (int *) calloc(k,sizeof(int));
c = (int *) calloc(m,sizeof(int));
for (i=0; i<k; i++)
b[i]=a[i];
for (j=k; j<n; j++)
c[j-l]=a[j];

merge_sort (b, k);

merge_sort (c, m);
merge (b, c, a, k, m);
free(b); free(c);
}
}

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 58

void merge (int *a, int *b, int *c, int m, int n)
{
int i, j, k, p;
i = j = k = 0;
do {
if (a[i] < b[j]) {
c[k]=a[i]; i=i+1;
}
else {
c[k]=b[j]; j=j+1;
}
k++;
} while ((i<m) && (j<n));
if (i == m) {
for (p=j; p<n; p++) { c[k]=b[p]; k++; }
}
else {
for (p=i; p<m; p++) { c[k]=a[p]; k++; }
}
}

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 59

main()
{
int i, num;
int a[ ] = {-56,23,43,-5,-3,0,123,-35,87,56,75,80};

for (i=0;i<12;i++)
printf ("%d ",a[i]);
printf ("\n");

merge_sort (a, 12);

printf (“\nSorted list:");

for (i=0;i<12;i++)
printf (“ %d", a[i]);
printf ("\n");
}

Spring Semester 2007 Programming and Data Structure 60