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Algorithms L2 Searching Algorithms

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73 views

Algorithms L2 Searching Algorithms

Uploaded by

Shop Alice
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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IGCSE Searching

algorithms
Computer Science
Unit 6
Algorithms

2
Objectives
• Understand and use different types of search
• Binary search
• Linear search
Searching algorithms
Unit 5 Algorithms

What is searching?
• We search for things many
times a day
• Physical things
• clothes
• homework

• Virtual things
• songs
• pictures
Searching algorithms
Unit 5 Algorithms

Searching a list
• Searching is a very common operation in computing
• A doctor might search for a patient’s notes
• A policeman can instantly find who is the owner of an
abandoned car
• Think of some other large databases
that often need to be searched
Searching algorithms
Unit 5 Algorithms

Searching a sorted list


• Suppose you have a dictionary and you want to look
up the word nebula
• What will be your strategy for finding the word?
• Will you start at the first word and search through till
you find it?
Searching algorithms
Unit 5 Algorithms

A binary search
• Here is a list of names:

Ali Ben Carl Joe Ken Lara Mo Oli Pam Tara Stan

The quickest way to find if a particular name is in the


list is to do a binary search
• Suppose we are searching for the name Mo
• The list has 11 items
• Examine the middle one first
Searching algorithms
Unit 5 Algorithms

A binary search
• The middle item in the list is Lara

Ali Ben Carl Joe Ken Lara Mo Oli Pam Tara Stan

• Lara comes before Mo alphabetically so we can


discard all the names from Ali to Lara
• Now we only have 5 names to search
Searching algorithms
Unit 5 Algorithms

A binary search
• Here is a list of names:

Ali Ben Carl Joe Ken Lara Mo Oli Pam Tara Stan

• Examine the middle name of the remaining list


• The middle name is Pam
• Mo comes before Pam so we can discard all the
names from Pam to Stan
Searching algorithms
Unit 5 Algorithms

A binary search
• Here is a list of names:

Ali Ben Carl Joe Ken Lara Mo Oli Pam Tara Stan

• Now we only have two names


• The “middle” name is taken to be the first one
• (e.g. In a list of 6 names, the third name is the
middle one)
• Examine the middle name, Mo
• Bingo! How many names did you look at?
Searching algorithms
Unit 5 Algorithms

“Divide and conquer”

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

• In a binary search, the size of the list is


approximately halved each time an item is examined
• How many items, at most, would have to be
examined in a list of 16 items to find the one you are
looking for?
• Try looking for the number 23 in this hidden list of
numbers
• Which box will you look at first?
Searching algorithms
Unit 5 Algorithms

“Divide and conquer”


42
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

• You’re looking for the number 23


• You’ve found the number 42
• Which box will you look at next?
Searching algorithms
Unit 5 Algorithms

“Divide and conquer”


35
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

• You’re looking for the number 23


• You’ve found the number 35
• Which box will you look at next?
Searching algorithms
Unit 5 Algorithms

“Divide and conquer”


27
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

• You’re looking for the number 23


• You’ve found the number 27
• Which box will you look at next?
Searching algorithms
Unit 5 Algorithms

“Divide and conquer”


23
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

• You’ve found the number 23!


• How many numbers did you look at?
Searching algorithms
Unit 5 Algorithms

“Divide and conquer”


23 27 32 35 37 38 41 42 45 50 52 53 54 58 61 67
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

• You looked in boxes 8, 4, 2 and 1


• In a list of 2n items, the maximum number of items
you will need to look at will be n + 1
• How many items would be examined if you were
searching for 67 instead of 23?
• Try searching for 61 in a list of 15 numbers (delete
67 from the list)
• How many items need to be examined?
Searching algorithms
Unit 5 Algorithms

Worksheet 2
• Do the questions in Task 1
Searching algorithms
Unit 5 Algorithms

Linear search
• If the list to be searched is not sorted, it is not
possible to do a binary search
• A linear search may be carried out instead

145 27 83 777 492 588 91 678 399 123

• Items are examined in the sequence


145, 27, 83, 777….
Searching algorithms
Unit 5 Algorithms

Comparison of searches
• In a list of 1,000,000 items, how many items have to
be examined to establish that an item is NOT in the
list?
Searching algorithms
Unit 5 Algorithms

Comparison of searches
• With a binary search, only 20 items have to be
examined to discover that an item is not in the list!
• That’s because 1,000,000 is less than 220 but greater
than 219
• Are there any more efficient algorithms for searching an
unsorted list?
Searching algorithms
Unit 5 Algorithms

Plenary
• There are just two algorithms for searching a list that
you need to know
• linear search
• binary search

• Be sure you can explain how both of these are


carried out
• (In large databases, indexes are organised and searched in
a different way which you will learn about in an A Level
course)
Searching algorithms
Unit 5 Algorithms

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