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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
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 ...
For example, the best case for a simple linear search on a list occurs when the desired element is the first element of the list. Development and choice of algorithms is rarely based on best-case performance: most academic and commercial enterprises are more interested in improving average-case complexity and worst-case performance. Algorithms ...
Concurrency and parallelism are in general distinct concepts, but they often overlap – many distributed algorithms are both concurrent and parallel – and thus "sequential" is used to contrast with both, without distinguishing which one. If these need to be distinguished, the opposing pairs sequential/concurrent and serial/parallel may be used.
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 ...
Animated example of a breadth-first search. Black: explored, grey: queued to be explored later on BFS on Maze-solving algorithm Top part of Tic-tac-toe game tree. Breadth-first search (BFS) is an algorithm for searching a tree data structure for a node that satisfies a given property.
Depth-first search (DFS) is an algorithm for traversing or searching tree or graph data structures. The algorithm starts at the root node (selecting some arbitrary node as the root node in the case of a graph) and explores as far as possible along each branch before backtracking.
Some algorithms are guaranteed to find the optimal solution, while others may only return the best solution found in the part of the state space that was explored. Classic combinatorial search problems include solving the eight queens puzzle or evaluating moves in games with a large game tree , such as reversi or chess .