Practical C Programming

Sorting and Searching

Searching, as the name suggests, is the process of locating a specific element in a group of elements. Searching can be broadly classified as one of the following two types:

• Linear searching: Where each element in the list is sequentially searched to find the desired item.
• Binary search: Where the list is assumed to already be sorted, and the middle value of the list is compared with the item to be searched to determine which half of the list needs to be considered for searching the item. The process of dividing the list continues until the item is found.

Sorting, on the other hand, is the procedure of arranging certain elements in a certain order. The order can be ascending, descending, or in another specific order. ...