Binary Searching

We had our first Algorithms lecture on wednesday. We were introduced to two main things: complexity and binary searching. Why it is called binary searching, I do not know (leave a comment below if you do!). The following diagram I created explains it better than I could in words:

I have implementated the 'binary search' algorithm in Javascript (should work in Node.JS too), PHP, and Python 3 (not tested in Python 2).

Javascript (editable version here):

/**
 * @summary Binary Search Implementation.
 * @description Takes a sorted array and the target number to find as input.
 * @author Starbeamrainbowlabs
 * 
 * @param arr {array} - The *sorted* array to search.
 * @param target {number} - The number to search array for.
 * 
 * @returns {number} - The index at which the target was found.
 */
function binarysearch(arr, target)
{
    console.log("searching", arr, "to find", target, ".");
    var start = 0,
        end = arr.length,
        midpoint = Math.floor((end + start) / 2);

    do {
        console.log("midpoint:", midpoint, "start:", start, "end:", end);
        if(arr[midpoint] !== target)
        {
            console.log("at", midpoint, "we found", arr[midpoint], ", the target is", target);
            if(arr[midpoint] > target)
            {
                console.log("number found was larger than midpoint - searching bottom half");
                end = midpoint;
            }
            else
            {
                console.log("number found was smaller than midpoint - searching top half");
                start = midpoint;
            }
            midpoint = Math.floor((end + start) / 2);
            console.log("new start/end/midpoint:", start, "/", end, "/", midpoint);
        }
    } while(arr[midpoint] !== target);
    console.log("found", target, "at position", midpoint);
    return midpoint;
}

The javascript can be tested with code like this:

//utility function to make generating random number easier
function rand(min, max)
{
    if(min > max)
        throw new Error("min was greater than max");
    return Math.floor(Math.random()*(max-min))+min;
}

var tosearch = [];
for(var i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
    tosearch.push(rand(0, 25));
}
tosearch.sort(function(a, b) { return a - b;});
var tofind = tosearch[rand(0, tosearch.length - 1)];
console.log("result:", binarysearch(tosearch, tofind));

PHP:

<?php
//utility function
function logstr($str) { echo("$str\n"); }

/*
 * @summary Binary Search Implementation.
 * @description Takes a sorted array and the target number to find as input.
 * @author Starbeamrainbowlabs
 * 
 * @param arr {array} - The *sorted* array to search.
 * @param target {number} - The number to search array for.
 * 
 * @returns {number} - The index at which the target was found.
 */
function binarysearch($arr, $target)
{
    logstr("searching [" . implode(", ", $arr) . "] to find " . $target . ".");
    $start = 0;
    $end = count($arr);
    $midpoint = floor(($end + $start) / 2);

    do {
        logstr("midpoint: " . $midpoint . " start: " . $start . " end: " . $end);
        if($arr[$midpoint] != $target)
        {
            logstr("at " . $midpoint . " we found " . $arr[$midpoint] . ", the target is " . $target);
            if($arr[$midpoint] > $target)
            {
                logstr("number found was larger than midpoint - searching bottom half");
                $end = $midpoint;
            }
            else
            {
                logstr("number found was smaller than midpoint - searching top half");
                $start = $midpoint;
            }
            $midpoint = floor(($end + $start) / 2);
            logstr("new start/end/midpoint: " . $start . "/" . $end . "/" . $midpoint);
        }
    } while($arr[$midpoint] != $target);
    logstr("found " . $target . " at position " . $midpoint);
    return $midpoint;
}
?>

The PHP version can be tested with this code:

<?php
$tosearch = [];
for($i = 0; $i < 10; $i++)
{
    $tosearch[] = rand(0, 25);
}
sort($tosearch);

$tofind = $tosearch[array_rand($tosearch)];
logstr("result: " . binarysearch($tosearch, $tofind));
?>

And finally the Python 3 version:

#!/usr/bin/env python
import math;
import random;

"""
" @summary Binary Search Implementation.
" @description Takes a sorted list and the target number to find as input.
" @author Starbeamrainbowlabs
" 
" @param tosearch {list} - The *sorted* list to search.
" @param target {number} - The number to search list for.
" 
" @returns {number} - The index at which the target was found.
"""
def binarysearch(tosearch, target):
    print("searching [" + ", ".join(map(str, tosearch)) + "] to find " + str(target) + ".");
    start = 0;
    end = len(tosearch);
    midpoint = int(math.floor((end + start) / 2));

    while True:
        print("midpoint: " + str(midpoint) + " start: " + str(start) + " end: " + str(end));
        if tosearch[midpoint] != target:
            print("at " + str(midpoint) + " we found " + str(tosearch[midpoint]) + ", the target is " + str(target));
            if tosearch[midpoint] > target:
                print("number found was larger than midpoint - searching bottom half");
                end = midpoint;
            else:
                print("number found was smaller than midpoint - searching top half");
                start = midpoint;

            midpoint = int(math.floor((end + start) / 2));
            print("new start/end/midpoint: " + str(start) + "/" + str(end) + "/" + str(midpoint));

        else:
            break;

    print("found " + str(target) + " at position " + str(midpoint));
    return midpoint;

The python code can be tested with something like this:

tosearch = [];
for i in range(50):
    tosearch.append(random.randrange(0, 75));

tosearch.sort();
tofind = random.choice(tosearch);

print("result: " + str(binarysearch(tosearch, tofind)));

That's a lot of code for one blog post.....