7.4 Searching Algorithms
The act of searching is a common activity for humans as well as computers. When you look for a name in a directory, for instance, you are performing a search. We explore two search algorithms in this section.
Sequential Search
Our first searching algorithm follows the most straightforward concept of a search. We look at each item in turn and compare it to the one for which we are searching. If it matches, we have found the item. If not, we look at the next item. We stop either when we have found the item or when we have looked at all the items and not found a match. This sounds like a loop with two ending conditions. Let’s write the algorithm using the array numbers.
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