Binary Search in Array

Question

How would I implement a binary search using just an array?

Answer 1

Ensure that your array is sorted since this is the crux of a binary search.

Any indexed/random-access data structure can be binary searched. So when you say using "just an array", I would say arrays are the most basic/common data structure that a binary search is employed on.

You can do it recursively (easiest) or iteratively. Time complexity of a binary search is O(log N) which is considerably faster than a linear search of checking each element at O(N). Here are some examples from Wikipedia: Binary Search Algorithm:

Recursive:

BinarySearch(A[0..N-1], value, low, high) {  
    if (high < low)  
        return -1 // not found  
    mid = low + ((high - low) / 2) 
    if (A[mid] > value)  
        return BinarySearch(A, value, low, mid-1)  
    else if (A[mid] < value)  
        return BinarySearch(A, value, mid+1, high)  
    else
       return mid // found
    }

Iterative:

  BinarySearch(A[0..N-1], value) {
   low = 0
   high = N - 1
   while (low <= high) {
       mid = low + ((high - low) / 2)
       if (A[mid] > value)
           high = mid - 1
       else if (A[mid] < value)
           low = mid + 1
       else
           return mid // found
   }
   return -1 // not found
}

Answer 2

Binary Search in Javascript (ES6)

(If anyone needs)

Bottom-up:

function binarySearch (arr, val) {
    let start = 0;
    let end = arr.length - 1;
    let mid;

    while (start <= end) {
        mid = Math.floor((start + end) / 2);

        if (arr[mid] === val) {
            return mid;
        }
        if (val < arr[mid]) {
            end = mid - 1;
        } else {
            start = mid + 1;
        }
    }
    return -1;
}

Recursion:

function binarySearch(arr, val, start = 0, end = arr.length - 1) {
    const mid = Math.floor((start + end) / 2);

    if (val === arr[mid]) {
        return mid;
    }
    if (start >= end) {
        return -1;
    }
    return val < arr[mid]
        ? binarySearch(arr, val, start, mid - 1)
        : binarySearch(arr, val, mid + 1, end);
}