Java's equivalent to bisect in python

Question

Is there an equivalent in Java for Python's bisect module? With Python's bisect you can do array bisection with directions. For instance bisect.bisect_left does:

Locate the proper insertion point for item in list to maintain sorted order. The parameters lo and hi may be used to specify a subset of the list which should be considered; by default the entire list is used.

I know I can do this manually with a binary search too, but I was wondering if there is already a library or collection doing this.

Answer 1

You have two options:

• java.util.Arrays.binarySearch on arrays
  • (with various overloads for different array types)
• java.util.Collections.binarySearch on List
  • (with Comparable and Comparator overloads).
  • Combine with List.subList(int fromIndex, int toIndex) to search portion of a list

Answer 2

To this date (Java 8), this is still missing, so you must still make your own. Here's mine:

public static int bisect_right(int[] A, int x) {
    return bisect_right(A, x, 0, A.length);
}

public static int bisect_right(int[] A, int x, int lo, int hi) {
    int N = A.length;
    if (N == 0) {
        return 0;
    }
    if (x < A[lo]) {
        return lo;
    }
    if (x > A[hi - 1]) {
        return hi;
    }
    for (;;) {
        if (lo + 1 == hi) {
            return lo + 1;
        }
        int mi = (hi + lo) / 2;
        if (x < A[mi]) {
            hi = mi;
        } else {
            lo = mi;
        }
    }
}

public static int bisect_left(int[] A, int x) {
    return bisect_left(A, x, 0, A.length);
}

public static int bisect_left(int[] A, int x, int lo, int hi) {
    int N = A.length;
    if (N == 0) {
        return 0;
    }
    if (x < A[lo]) {
        return lo;
    }
    if (x > A[hi - 1]) {
        return hi;
    }
    for (;;) {
        if (lo + 1 == hi) {
            return x == A[lo] ? lo : (lo + 1);
        }
        int mi = (hi + lo) / 2;
        if (x <= A[mi]) {
            hi = mi;
        } else {
            lo = mi;
        }
    }
}

Tested with (X being the class where I store static methods that I intend to reuse):

@Test
public void bisect_right() {
    System.out.println("bisect_rienter code hereght");
    int[] A = new int[]{0, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 5, 6};
    assertEquals(0, X.bisect_right(A, -1));
    assertEquals(1, X.bisect_right(A, 0));
    assertEquals(6, X.bisect_right(A, 2));
    assertEquals(8, X.bisect_right(A, 3));
    assertEquals(8, X.bisect_right(A, 4));
    assertEquals(9, X.bisect_right(A, 5));
    assertEquals(10, X.bisect_right(A, 6));
    assertEquals(10, X.bisect_right(A, 7));
}

@Test
public void bisect_left() {
    System.out.println("bisect_left");
    int[] A = new int[]{0, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 5, 6};
    assertEquals(0, X.bisect_left(A, -1));
    assertEquals(0, X.bisect_left(A, 0));
    assertEquals(2, X.bisect_left(A, 2));
    assertEquals(6, X.bisect_left(A, 3));
    assertEquals(8, X.bisect_left(A, 4));
    assertEquals(8, X.bisect_left(A, 5));
    assertEquals(9, X.bisect_left(A, 6));
    assertEquals(10, X.bisect_left(A, 7));
}