Thread: Binary search

Always?

So now it's guessing time?

Did you run the program with your debugger and single step though this section of your code watching the values of the variables as you step?

By the way if your guess was correct the program should finish, does it?

Jim

It finishes when I introduce a value that IS in the vector. When I introduce a value that IS NOT, then it does not.

When I introduce a value that IS NOT, then it does not.

So you see a problem, what have you done to find the solution to this problem? I've given you a hint as to what is wrong and one way of seeing for yourself what is happening. Have you tried your debugger? Did you go back and review your documentation for your binary search routine?

Jim

Originally Posted by OctavianC

It finishes when I introduce a value that IS in the vector. When I introduce a value that IS NOT, then it does not.

You have a while loop like this:

Code:

while (flag == 0 && inf <= supp) {
    ...
}

It contains the condition flag == 0 && inf <= supp. When that condition becomes false, then the loop will end.

You have 2 end conditions for your algorithm, number one is that you find the value and number two is that you go through all elements and don't find the value. One of them loops forever, which means that flag == 0 && inf <= supp is always true when that happens.

You need to find out why, Jim advices you to use the debugger to start to understand why, and this is excellent advice.