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In computer science, linear search or sequential search is a method for finding an element within a list. It sequentially checks each element of the list until a match is found or the whole list has been searched. [1] A linear search runs in linear time in the worst case, and makes at most n comparisons, where n is the length of
The simplest, most general, and least efficient search structure is merely an unordered sequential list of all the items. Locating the desired item in such a list, by the linear search method, inevitably requires a number of operations proportional to the number n of items, in the worst case as well as in the average case. Useful search data ...
Some collections maintain a linear ordering of items – with access to one or both ends. The data structure implementing such a collection need not be linear. For example, a priority queue is often implemented as a heap, which is a kind of tree. Notable linear collections include: list; stack; queue; priority queue; double-ended queue
The linear search problem was solved by Anatole Beck and Donald J. Newman (1970) as a two-person zero-sum game. Their minimax trajectory is to double the distance on each step and the optimal strategy is a mixture of trajectories that increase the distance by some fixed constant. [ 8 ]
Specific applications of search algorithms include: Problems in combinatorial optimization, such as: . The vehicle routing problem, a form of shortest path problem; The knapsack problem: Given a set of items, each with a weight and a value, determine the number of each item to include in a collection so that the total weight is less than or equal to a given limit and the total value is as ...
One may also use a sentinel node at the end of the list, with an appropriate data field, to eliminate some end-of-list tests. For example, when scanning the list looking for a node with a given value x, setting the sentinel's data field to x makes it unnecessary to test for end-of-list inside the loop. Another example is the merging two sorted ...
The aim of a self-organizing list is to improve efficiency of linear search by moving more frequently accessed items towards the head of the list. A self-organizing list achieves near constant time for element access in the best case. A self-organizing list uses a reorganizing algorithm to adapt to various query distributions at runtime.
The first instance is the first sentence "linear search or sequential search is a method for finding a target value within a list. It sequentially checks each element of the list for the target value until a match is found or until all the elements have been searched".