Linear Search

What?

• is a search algorithm that finds a target element within an array/list by sequentially checking each element of the array/list until it finds an element that matches the target value - if the algorithm reaches the end of the list, the search terminates unsuccessfully
• known as
  • sequential search

When?

• when data is small by performing a single search in an unordered array/list

How?

Steps

start procedure
   for each item in the list
      if match item == value
         return the item's location
      end if
   end for
end procedure

def linear_search(elems: list, target: int) -> bool:
    """
    @def: Search an unordered list to find a target integer
		@return: bool 
						 => true,  if target in array 
						 => false, otherwise
    """
		for elem in elems:
			if elem == target:
				return True
	
		return False

Why?

Binary Search

What?

• is a search algorithm that finds the position of a target value within a sorted array by comparing the target value to the middle element of the array
• known as
  • half-interval search
  • logarithmic search
  • binary chop

When?

• when data is large and sorted in ascending or descending order****

How?