Binary search algorithm

This article is about searching a finite sorted array. For searching continuous function values, see bisection
method.
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specified. Please help improve this article if you can. (April 2011)
Binary search algorithm
Class
Search algorithm
Data structure
Array
Worst case performance
O(log n)
Best case performance
O(1)
Average case performance
O(log n)
Worst case space complexity
O(1)
In computer science, a binary search or half-interval search algorithm finds the position of a specified
input value (the search "key") within an array sorted by key value.[1][2] For binary search, the array should be
arranged in ascending or descending order. In each step, the algorithm compares the search key value
with the key value of the middle element of the array. If the keys match, then a matching element has been
found and its index, or position, is returned. Otherwise, if the search key is less than the middle element's
key, then the algorithm repeats its action on the sub-array to the left of the middle element or, if the search
key is greater, on the sub-array to the right. If the remaining array to be searched is empty, then the key
cannot be found in the array and a special "not found" indication is returned.
A binary search halves the number of items to check with each iteration, so locating an item (or determining
its absence) takes logarithmic time. A binary search is a dichotomicdivide and conquer search algorithm.
Contents

1 Overview

2 Examples

2.1 Number guessing game

2.2 Word lists

2.3 Applications to complexity theory

3 Algorithm

3.1 Recursive

3.2 Iterative

3.3 Deferred detection of equality

4 Performance

4.1 Average performance

5 Variations

5.1 Exclusive or inclusive bounds

5.2 Midpoint and width

5.3 Search domain

5.4 Noisy search

5.5 Exponential search

5.6 Interpolated search

6 Implementation issues

6.1 Arithmetic

7 Language support

8 See also

9 References

9.1 Other sources

10 External links

Overview[edit]
Searching a sorted collection is a common task. A dictionary is a sorted list of word definitions. Given a
word, one can find its definition. A telephone book is a sorted list of people's names, addresses, and
telephone numbers. Knowing someone's name allows one to quickly find their telephone number and
address.
If the list to be searched contains more than a few items (a dozen, say) a binary search will require far
fewer comparisons than a linear search, but it imposes the requirement that the list be sorted. Similarly,
a hash search can be faster than a binary search but imposes still greater requirements. If the contents of
the array are modified between searches, maintaining these requirements may even take more time than
the searches. And if it is known that some items will be searched for much more often than others, andit
can be arranged so that these items are at the start of the list, then a linear search may be the best.
More generally, algorithm allows searching over argument of any monotonic function for a point, at which
function reaches the arbitrary value (enclosed between minimum and maximum at the given range).

Examples[edit]
Example: The list to be searched: L = 1 3 4 6 8 9 11. The value to be found: X = 4.

Compare X to 6. X is smaller. Repeat with L = 1 3 4.

Compare X to 3. X is bigger. Repeat with L = 4.
Compare X to 4. They are equal. We're done, we found X.
This is called Binary Search: each iteration of (1)-(4) the length of the list we are looking in gets cut in half;
therefore, the total number of iterations cannot be greater than logN.

Number guessing game[edit]

This rather simple game begins something like "I'm thinking of an integer between forty and sixty inclusive,
and to your guesses I'll respond 'Higher', 'Lower', or 'Yes!' as might be the case." Supposing that N is the
number of possible values (here, twenty-one, as "inclusive" was stated), then at most
questions are required to determine the number, since each question halves the search space. Note that
one less question (iteration) is required than for the general algorithm, since the number is already
constrained to be within a particular range.
Even if the number to guess can be arbitrarily large, in which case there is no upper bound N, the number
can be found in at most
steps (where k is the (unknown) selected number) by first
finding an upper bound with one-sided binary search.[citation needed] For example, if the number were 11, the
following sequence of guesses could be used to find it: 1 (Higher), 2 (Higher), 4 (Higher), 8 (Higher), 16
(Lower), 12 (Lower), 10 (Higher). Now we know that the number must be 11 because it is higher than 10
and lower than 12.
One could also extend the method to include negative numbers; for example the following guesses could
be used to find 13: 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 12, 14. Now we know that the number must be 13 because
it is lower than 12 and higher than 14.

Word lists[edit]
People typically use a mixture of the binary search and interpolative search algorithms when searching
a telephone book, after the initial guess we exploit the fact that the entries are sorted and can rapidly find
the required entry. For example when searching for Smith, if Rogers and Thomas have been found, one
can flip to a page about halfway between the previous guesses. If this shows Samson, it can be concluded
that Smith is somewhere between the Samson and Thomas pages so these can be divided.

Applications to complexity theory[edit]

Even if we do not know a fixed range the number k falls in, we can still determine its value by
asking
simple yes/no questions of the form "Is k greater than x?" for some number x. As a
simple consequence of this, if you can answer the question "Is this integer property k greater than a given
value?" in some amount of time then you can find the value of that property in the same amount of time
with an added factor of
. This is called a reduction, and it is because of this kind of reduction that
most complexity theorists concentrate on decision problems, algorithms that produce a simple yes/no
answer.
For example, suppose we could answer "Does this n x n matrix have permanent larger than k?" in O(n2)
time. Then, by using binary search, we could find the (ceiling of the) permanent itself in O(n2 log p) time,
where p is the value of the permanent. Notice that p is not the size of the input, but the value of the output;
given a matrix whose maximum item (in absolute value) is m, p is bounded by
. Hence log p =
O(n log n + log m). A binary search could find the permanent in O(n3 log n + n2 log m).

Algorithm[edit]
Recursive[edit]
A straightforward implementation of binary search is recursive. The initial call uses the indices of the entire
array to be searched. The procedure then calculates an index midway between the two indices, determines
which of the two subarrays to search, and then does a recursive call to search that subarray. Each of the
calls is tail recursive, so a compiler need not make a new stack frame for each call. The
variables imin and imax are the lowest and highest inclusive indices that are searched.

int binary_search(int A[], int key, int imin, int imax)

{
// test if array is empty
if (imax < imin)
// set is empty, so return value showing not found
return KEY_NOT_FOUND;
else
{
// calculate midpoint to cut set in half
int imid = midpoint(imin, imax);
// three-way comparison
if (A[imid] > key)
// key is in lower subset
return binary_search(A, key, imin, imid - 1);
else if (A[imid] < key)
// key is in upper subset
return binary_search(A, key, imid + 1, imax);
else
// key has been found
return imid;
}
}
It is invoked with initial imin and imax values of 0 and N-1 for a zero based array of length N.
The number type "int" shown in the code has an influence on how the midpoint calculation can be
implemented correctly. With unlimited numbers, the midpoint can be calculated as "(imin + imax) /
2". In practical programming, however, the calculation is often performed with numbers of a limited range,
and then the intermediate result "(imin + imax)" might overflow. With limited numbers, the midpoint
can be calculated correctly as "imin + ((imax - imin) / 2)".

Iterative[edit]
The binary search algorithm can also be expressed iteratively with two index limits that progressively
narrow the search range.[3]
int binary_search(int A[], int key, int imin, int imax)
{
// continue searching while [imin,imax] is not empty
while (imax >= imin)
{
// calculate the midpoint for roughly equal partition
int imid = midpoint(imin, imax);
if(A[imid] == key)
// key found at index imid
return imid;
// determine which subarray to search
else if (A[imid] < key)
// change min index to search upper subarray
imin = imid + 1;
else
// change max index to search lower subarray

imax = imid - 1;
}
// key was not found
return KEY_NOT_FOUND;
}

Deferred detection of equality[edit]

The above iterative and recursive versions take three paths based on the key comparison: one path for
less than, one path for greater than, and one path for equality. (There are two conditional branches.) The
path for equality is taken only when the record is finally matched, so it is rarely taken. That branch path can
be moved outside the search loop in the deferred test for equality version of the algorithm. The following
algorithm uses only one conditional branch per iteration. [4]
// inclusive indices
//

0 <= imin when using truncate toward zero divide

//

imid = (imin+imax)/2;

//

imin unrestricted when using truncate toward minus infinity divide

//

imid = (imin+imax)>>1; or

//

imid = (int)floor((imin+imax)/2.0);

int binary_search(int A[], int key, int imin, int imax)

{
// continually narrow search until just one element remains
while (imin < imax)
{
int imid = midpoint(imin, imax);
// code must guarantee the interval is reduced at each iteration
assert(imid < imax);
// note: 0 <= imin < imax implies imid will always be less than imax
// reduce the search
if (A[imid] < key)
imin = imid + 1;
else
imax = imid;
}
// At exit of while:
//

if A[] is empty, then imax < imin

//

otherwise imax == imin

// deferred test for equality

if ((imax == imin) && (A[imin] == key))
return imin;
else
return KEY_NOT_FOUND;
}
The deferred detection approach foregoes the possibility of early termination on discovery of a match, so
the search will take about log2(N) iterations. On average, a successfulearly termination search will not save
many iterations. For large arrays that are a power of 2, the savings is about two iterations. Half the time, a
match is found with one iteration left to go; one quarter the time with two iterations left, one eighth with
three iterations, and so forth. The infinite series sum is 2.

The deferred detection algorithm has the advantage that if the keys are not unique, it returns the smallest
index (the starting index) of the region where elements have the search key. The early termination version
would return the first match it found, and that match might be anywhere in region of equal keys.

Performance[edit]
With each test that fails to find a match at the probed position, the search is continued with one or other of
the two sub-intervals, each at most half the size. More precisely, if the number of items, N, is odd then both
sub-intervals will contain (N1)/2 elements, while if N is even then the two sub-intervals contain N/21
and N/2 elements.
If the original number of items is N then after the first iteration there will be at most N/2 items remaining,
then at most N/4 items, at most N/8 items, and so on. In the worst case, when the value is not in the list,
the algorithm must continue iterating until the span has been made empty; this will have taken at most
log2(N)+1 iterations, where the notation denotes the floor function that rounds its argument down to an
integer. This worst case analysis is tight: for any N there exists a query that takes exactly log2(N)+1
iterations. When compared to linear search, whose worst-case behaviour is N iterations, we see that binary
search is substantially faster as N grows large. For example, to search a list of one million items takes as
many as one million iterations with linear search, but never more than twenty iterations with binary search.
However, a binary search can only be performed if the list is in sorted order.

Average performance[edit]
log2(N)1 is the expected number of probes in an average successful search, and the worst case is log 2(N),
just one more probe.[citation needed] If the list is empty, no probes at all are made. Thus binary search is
a logarithmic algorithm and executes in O(log N) time. In most cases it is considerably faster than a linear
search. It can be implemented usingiteration, or recursion. In some languages it is more elegantly
expressed recursively; however, in some C-based languages tail recursion is not eliminated and the
recursive version requires more stack space.
Binary search can interact poorly with the memory hierarchy (i.e. caching), because of its random-access
nature. For in-memory searching, if the span to be searched is small, a linear search may have superior
performance simply because it exhibits better locality of reference. For external searching, care must be
taken or each of the first several probes will lead to a disk seek. A common method is to abandon binary
searching for linear searching as soon as the size of the remaining span falls below a small value such as 8
or 16 or even more in recent computers. The exact value depends entirely on the machine running the
algorithm.
Notice that for multiple searches with a fixed value for N, then (with the appropriate regard for integer
division), the first iteration always selects the middle element at N/2, and the second always selects
either N/4 or 3N/4, and so on. Thus if the array's key values are in some sort of slow storage (on a disc file,
in virtual memory, not in the cpu's on-chip memory), keeping those three keys in a local array for a special
preliminary search will avoid accessing widely separated memory. Escalating to seven or fifteen such
values will allow further levels at not much cost in storage. On the other hand, if the searches are frequent
and not separated by much other activity, the computer's various storage control features will more or less
automatically promote frequently accessed elements into faster storage.
When multiple binary searches are to be performed for the same key in related lists, fractional
cascading can be used to speed up successive searches after the first one.
Even though in theory binary search is almost always faster than linear search, in practice even on small
arrays (around 64 items or less) it might be infeasible to ever use binary search. On large unsorted arrays,
it only makes sense to binary search if the number of searches is large enough, because the initial time to
sort the array is comparable to log(n) linear searches [5]

Variations[edit]
There are many, and they are easily confused.

Exclusive or inclusive bounds[edit]

The most significant differences are between the "exclusive" and "inclusive" forms of the bounds. In the
"exclusive" bound form the span to be searched is (L+1) to (R1), and this may seem clumsy when the
span to be searched could be described in the "inclusive" form, as L to R. Although the details differ the two
forms are equivalent as can be seen by transforming one version into the other. The inclusive bound form
can be attained by replacing all appearances of "L" by "(L1)" and "R" by "(R+1)" then rearranging. Thus,

the initialisation of L := 0 becomes (L1) := 0 or L := 1, and R := N+1 becomes (R+1) := N+1 or R := N. So

far so good, but note now that the changes to L and R are no longer simply transferring the value
of p to L or R as appropriate but now must be (R+1) := p or R := p1, and (L1) := p or L := p+1.
Thus, the gain of a simpler initialisation, done once, is lost by a more complex calculation, and which is
done for every iteration. If that is not enough, the test for an empty span is more complex also, as
compared to the simplicity of checking that the value of p is zero. Nevertheless, the inclusive bound form is
found in many publications, such as Donald Knuth. The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 3: Sorting
and Searching, Third Edition.
Another common variation uses inclusive bounds for the left bound, but exclusive bounds for the right
bound. This is derived from the fact that the bounds in a language with zero-based arrays can be simply
initialized to 0 and the size of the array, respectively. This mirrors the way array slices are represented in
some programming languages.

Midpoint and width[edit]

A different variation involves abandoning the L and R pointers and using a current position p and a width w.
At each iteration, the position p is adjusted and the width w is halved. Knuth states, "It is possible to do this,
but only if extreme care is paid to the details."[6]

Search domain[edit]
There is no particular requirement that the array being searched has the bounds 1 to N. It is possible to
search a specified range, elements first to last instead of 1 to N. All that is necessary is that the initialization
of the bounds be L := first1 and R := last+1, then all proceeds as before.
The elements of the list are not necessarily all unique. If one searches for a value that occurs multiple times
in the list, the index returned will be of the first-encountered equal element, and this will not necessarily be
that of the first, last, or middle element of the run of equal-key elements but will depend on the positions of
the values. Modifying the list even in seemingly unrelated ways such as adding elements elsewhere in the
list may change the result.
If the location of the first and/or last equal element needs to be determined, this can be done efficiently with
a variant of the binary search algorithms which perform only one inequality test per iteration. See deferred
detection of equality.

Noisy search[edit]
Several algorithms closely related to or extending binary search exist. For instance, noisy binary
search solves the same class of projects as regular binary search, with the added complexity that any
given test can return a false value at random. (Usually, the number of such erroneous results are bounded
in some way, either in the form of an average error rate, or in the total number of errors allowed per
element in the search space.) Optimal algorithms for several classes of noisy binary search problems have
been known since the late seventies, and more recently, optimal algorithms for noisy binary search in
quantum computers (where several elements can be tested at the same time) have been discovered.

Exponential search[edit]
An exponential search (also called a one-sided search) searches from a starting point within the array and
either expects that the element being sought is nearby or the upper (lower) bound on the array is
unknown. Starting with a step size of 1 and doubling with each step, the method looks for a number >=
(<=) . Once the upper (lower) bound is found, then the method proceeds with a binary search. The
complexity of the search is
if the sought element is in the nth array position. This depends
only on
and not on the size of the array.

Interpolated search[edit]
Main article: Interpolation search
An interpolated search tries to guess the location of the element you're searching for, typically by
calculating a midpoint based on the lowest and highest value and assuming a fairly even distribution of
values. When has been determined an exponential search is performed.[clarification needed]

Implementation issues[edit]
Although the basic idea of binary search is comparatively straightforward, the details can be surprisingly
tricky Donald Knuth[7]

When Jon Bentley assigned it as a problem in a course for professional programmers, he found that an
astounding ninety percent failed to code a binary search correctly after several hours of working on it, [8] and
another study shows that accurate code for it is only found in five out of twenty textbooks. [9] Furthermore,
Bentley's own implementation of binary search, published in his 1986 book Programming Pearls, contains
an error that remained undetected for over twenty years. [10]

Arithmetic[edit]
In a practical implementation, the variables used to represent the indices will often be of finite size, hence
only capable of representing a finite range of values. For example, 32-bit unsigned integers can only hold
values from 0 to 4294967295. 32-bit signed integers can only hold values from -2147483648 to
2147483647. If the binary search algorithm is to operate on large arrays, this has three implications:

The values first 1 and last + 1 must both be representable

within the finite bounds of the chosen integer type . Therefore,
continuing the 32-bit unsigned example, the largest value
that last may take is +4294967294, not +4294967295. A problem
exists even for the "inclusive" form of the method, as if x >

A(4294967295).Key, then on the final iteration the algorithm will

attempt to store 4294967296 into L and fail. Equivalent issues apply to
the lower limit, where first 1 could become negative as when the
first element of the array is at index zero.

If the midpoint of the span is calculated as p := (L + R)/2, then

the value (L + R) will exceed the number range if last is greater
than (for unsigned) 4294967295/2 or (for signed) 2147483647/2 and
the search wanders toward the upper end of the search space. This
can be avoided by performing the calculation as p := (R - L)/2 +

L. For example, this bug existed in Java SDK

at Arrays.binarySearch() from 1.2 to 5.0 and was fixed in 6.0.[11]

KEY_NOT_FOUND must be a valid value of the return type, but this

value can never be an index of the array

Language support[edit]
Many standard libraries provide a way to do a binary search:

C provides the algorithm function bsearch in its standard library.

C++'s STL provides the algorithm

functions binary_search, lower_bound and upper_bound.

Java offers a set of overloaded binarySearch() static methods in

the classes Arrays and Collections in the
standard java.util package for performing binary searches on Java

arrays and on Lists, respectively. They must be arrays of primitives,

or the arrays or Lists must be of a type that implements
the Comparable interface, or you must specify a
custom Comparator object.

Microsoft's .NET Framework 2.0 offers static generic versions of the

binary search algorithm in its collection base classes. An example
would be System.Array's methodBinarySearch<T>(T[]

array, T value).

Python provides the bisect module.

COBOL can perform binary search on internal tables using

the SEARCH ALL statement.

Perl can perform a generic binary search using the CPAN module
List::BinarySearch.[12]

Ruby's Array class has included a bsearch method since version

2.0.0.

Go's sort standard library package contains the

functions Search, SearchInts, SearchFloat64s,
and SearchStrings, which implement general binary search, as
well as specific implementations for searching slices of integers,
floating-point numbers, and strings, respectively.[13]

For Objective-C, the Cocoa framework provides the NSArray

-indexOfObject:inSortedRange:options:usingComparator: method in
Mac OS X 10.6+. Apple's Core Foundation C framework also contains
a CFArrayBSearchValues() function.

See also[edit]
Computer science portal

Interpolation search, similar method with better average complexity

Index (information technology), very fast 'lookup' using an index to

directly select an entry

Branch table, alternative indexed 'lookup' method for decision making

Self-balancing binary search tree

Run-time analysis, illustrating binary search method on machines of

differing speeds

Bisection method, the same idea used to solve equations in the real
numbers

References[edit]
1.

^ Cormen, Thomas H.; Leiserson, Charles E., Rivest, Ronald

L. (1990).Introduction to Algorithms (1st ed.). MIT Press and
McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-262-03141-8.

2.

^ Weisstein, Eric W., "Binary Search", MathWorld.

3.

^ Press, William H.; Flannery, Brian P.; Teukolsky, Saul A.;

Vetterling, William T. (1988), Numerical Recipes in C: The Art of
Scientific Computing, Cambridge University Press, pp. 98
99, ISBN 0-521-35465-X

4.

^ Wirth, Niklaus (1983), Programming in Modula-2, p. 35

5.

^ Horvath, Adam (February 5, 2012). "Binary search and linear

search performance on the .NET and Mono platform".

6.

^ Knuth, Donald (1968). Sorting and Searching. The Art of

Computer Programming 3 (3rd ed.). Addison-Wesley.
p. 414. ISBN 978-0321751041.

7.

^ Knuth, Donald (1997). "Section 6.2.1: Searching an Ordered

Table". Sorting and Searching. The Art of Computer
Programming 3 (3rd ed.). Addison-Wesley. pp. 409426. ISBN 0201-89685-0.

8.

^ Bentley, Jon (2000) [1986]. Programming Pearls (2nd edition

ed.). Addison-Wesley. p. 341. ISBN 0-201-65788-0.

9.

^ Pattis, Richard E. (1988). "Textbook errors in binary

searching". SIGCSEBulletin 20: 190
194. doi:10.1145/52965.53012. cited at Kruse, Robert (1998).Data
Structures and Program Design in C++. Prentice Hall.
p. 280. ISBN 0-13-768995-0.

10. ^ Bloch, Joshua (June 2, 2006) [Updated 17 Feb 2008]. "Extra,

Extra Read All About It: Nearly All Binary Searches and
Mergesorts are Broken". Google Research Blog.
11. ^ "Bug ID: 5045582 (coll) binarySearch() fails for size larger than
1<<30". Java Bug Database. Oracle. 11 May 2004.
12. ^ "List::BinarySearch". CPAN.
13. ^ "Package sort". The Go Programming Language.

Other sources[edit]

Kruse, Robert L.: "Data Structures and Program Design in C++",

Prentice-Hall, 1999, ISBN 0-13-768995-0, page 280.

van Gasteren, Netty; Feijen, Wim (1995). "The Binary Search

Revisited" (PDF). AvG127/WF214. (investigates the foundations of the
binary search, debunking the myth that it applies only to sorted arrays)

External links[edit]
The Wikibook Algorithm implementation has a page on the topic of: Binary search

NIST Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures: binary search

Binary search implemented in 12 languages

Binary search casual examples - dictionary, array and monotonic

function

Benchmark of 7 binary search variants implemented in C

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