Introduction
Among the basic algorithms, binary search is one of the most efficient ones for finding items from sorted lists.
So, what is the basic concept of this algorithmic program? How can you run an algorithm on graphs?
Let our article provide detailed information about the binary search flowchart, including its definition, its usage, and a straightforward instance.
What Is Binary Search Flowchart?
A binary search flowchart is a graphical representation of a binary algorithm. Hence, it is necessary to go through the brief information of this algorithm to understand its diagram.
About This Algorithmic Program
Binary search is a searching algorithm that finds the position of the given element within sorted lists. Other names of this algorithm are logarithmic and half-interval search, and binary chop.
How does this algorithm work? First, you need to sort your original list as this algorithm only works within a sorted array. Then, this algorithmic program will split the database in half and compare the middle element with the target value.
If the middle element is equal to the target one, return the midpoint index. Otherwise, the algorithmic program will check if the midpoint comes before or after the target value and eliminate the half that does not contain the target element.
After that, the program continues on the remaining array elements, repeatedly dividing and checking until the value is found or the interval is empty.
The process ends when the algorithmic program detects the target value or goes with the remaining half empty, meaning the item is not in the array.
This algorithm is much more effective than the linear search because it executes in logarithmic time. Thus, you can save your time using this effective algorithm to find the given element in the sorted lists.
The idea of logarithmic search is simple; however, implementing it properly requires attention to some subtleties about the mid index calculation and exit conditions.
Use Of Logarithmic Search Diagram
A binary search flowchart is a lively way to represent a searching algorithm. Programmers often use it as a program-planning tool to address an easy-to-medium-difficult issue because creating it is quick and easy.
Furthermore, it is a powerful means of explaining the program to others since it is intuitive and easy to understand.
Despite the advantages of flowchart, it might not be an ideal tool to solve or represent the solutions to complex programs.
That is because it would come with many boxes and much information, making the readers difficult to catch up with the details.
An Example Of Logarithmic Search Diagram
In this part, we will show you the basic structure of this algorithmic program via the below example.
Let’s imagine that you are looking for the customer “John Smith” in the database of customers. You will need to arrange the original list by surname and look for the record “John Smith” by surname.
The algorithmic program will split the database in half and check if the customer’s name is at the midpoint of list. If not, it will check which half might contain “John Smith” as a name and throw away the rest of the records.
For these assumptions, you might have two exit conditions. First, the loop continues until it reaches two records left, one of which is “John Smith”. Second, there is no record equal to the target item, and the interval is empty.
If you narrow down the possible locations to just one, your sample output could be the index of your target item or John Smith’s details.
Otherwise, display output could be some statements, such as “Not found” the customer’s name is not in the input data.
