Recursive binary search char*

>>I am thinking of implementing a recursive binary search which will be more efficient that this

Why reinventing the wheel? Use 'std::binary_search()': http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/binary_search.html

That stl binary search returns bool value. Instead, I need to retrieve the index of the item once it is found in the array.

You can use std::lower_bound, which will return a pointer to the array entry where the searched-for term *would be*. You can then check to see if this is indeed the right entry, and get the index from the pointer if it is, or return an error if not.

note :

>>>midder = first+last/2;

must replace with midder = (first+last)/2;

good luck

>>     if(target[mid]<val)
          return binary_search(target, mid, last, val);

what is the val you mean in this if statement?
The index variable in my function will return the index in the array where the target is found.
The target array will be compared with a buffer array which has the data from a file.

target[mid] is a character and val is an integer, how can I compare this two?

array[k] is an array with fixed length data.
Say each field occupies 10 bytes.
In the array, the data will appear to be like this :
'A''L''E''X' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' 'B''E''N''N''Y'' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' 'B''O''B''O'' '' '' '' '' '' '
So say mid will be pointing 'B'(of Benny) then the function needs to move forward to check the other characters.
That's where i stuck.

Hi,

I wrote this function by these rules that target is an int array, val is the valu that i was to find it, and my function return the index of finded valu in target array;

so,
#define NAME_LEN   10

//this function compare target[first]...target[first+NAME_LEN] with
//array[0]...array[NAME_LEN] and return these values:
// if target < array return negetive number
// if target > array return positive number
// if target == array return 0
int check(char target[], int  start)
{
     int i;
     for(i=0; i<NAME_LEN; i++)
     {
          if(target[i]==array[i])
               continue;
          else
               return target[i]-array[i];
     }
     return 0;
}

int binary_search( char target[], int first, int last)
{
     if(last<first)
          return -1;
     int mid = ( first + ( last / NAME_LEN ) ) / 2;
     mid *= NAME_LEN;
     int sw = check(target,  mid);
     if(sw < 0)
          return binary_search(target, mid, last);
     else if(sw > 0 )
          return binary_search(target, first, mid);
     else // sw == 0
          return mid;
}


Have a good programming day.

>> Say each field occupies 10 bytes
that helps a lot.

why "void binary_search(char target[], int first, int last, int index)"? don't you want to pass in the array_to_search_ in and array_to_search_ for? and why pass the index? you should be returning the index.

int binary_search(char *array, char *target, int first, int last){
  if(first > last) return -1;

  int middle = (first+last)/2;
  int comp = strncmp(&array[middle], target, strlen(target);
  if(comp == 0) return middle;
  if(comp < 0) return binary_search(array, target, middle, last);
  else return binary_search(array, target, first, middle-10);
}

note that first, last and middle must be multiples of 10 (or whaterver field length you choose). also note (middle-10) instead of the usual (middle-1).

jaydutt

sorry, zaghaghi got there first.

strcmp do not work with both arrays. I tried. So, I implement the comparrison function, and again, it looks redundant.
The recursion doesn't as I tried. So, this is my binary search. Can you see a way to make it recursive?

if(first <= last){
      while(first <= last && !found ){      //begins binary search
            if(target[t] == IBuffer[k]){      //check for next characters
                  while(IBuffer[k] != 32)
                  {            
                        if(target[t] == IBuffer[k])
                        {
                              found_count= found_count+1;
                              
                        }else if(target[t] < IBuffer[k])
                        {
                              last = middle-22;
                              middle = ((middle)/22/2)*22;
                              k=middle;
                              t=0;
                              break;
                        }else{
                              first = middle+22;
                              middle = ((first/22)+((last-first)/22/2))*22;
                              k=middle;
                              t=0;
                              break;

                        }
                        t++;k++;
                                          
                  }
                  if(found_count == t){
                        found = true;
                        RRN = get_RRN(middle+16);
                        return middle;
                  }
                  found_count = 0;
             }else if(target[t] < IBuffer[k]){      
                  
                  last = middle-22;
                  middle = ((middle)/22/2)*22;
                  k=middle;
                  t=0;
                  
            }else if(target[t] > IBuffer[k]){
                  
                  first = middle+22;
                  middle = ((first/22)+((last-first)/22/2))*22;
                  k=middle;
                  t=0;
            }
      }
      }else{
            return -1;
            found = false;
      }

Thank you.

strncmp causes an access violation to the program

nope. it doesn't. I ran it. here's sample output:

name1
name0     name1     name2     name3     name4     name5
1
Press any key to continue_

Cool.
The problem is with the middle value.
I have changed it according to the size of the data structure.
Also, I changed it to static int instead of int cause only the first middle will be ( first + last)/2
Thank you for all the helps.
I think I should give credit to zaghagi too.

Solving the searching problem here comes the sorting problem. I have posted it in another post. Take a look if you have any clue about that. Here is the link.
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/21189206/Linked-list-sorting.html