std::binary_search

 

C++

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Algorithm library

Functions
Non-modifying sequence operations
all_of any_of none_of (C++11) (C++11) (C++11) for_each count count_if mismatch equal	find find_if find_if_not (C++11) find_end find_first_of adjacent_find search search_n
Modifying sequence operations
copy copy_if (C++11) copy_n (C++11) copy_backward move (C++11) move_backward (C++11) fill fill_n transform generate generate_n remove remove_if remove_copy remove_copy_if	replace replace_if replace_copy replace_copy_if swap swap_ranges iter_swap reverse reverse_copy rotate rotate_copy random_shuffle shuffle   (C++11) unique unique_copy
Partitioning operations
is_partitioned (C++11) partition partition_copy (C++11)	stable_partition partition_point (C++11)
Sorting operations (on sorted ranges)
is_sorted (C++11) is_sorted_until (C++11) sort	partial_sort partial_sort_copy stable_sort nth_element
Binary search operations (on sorted ranges)
lower_bound upper_bound	binary_search equal_range
Set operations (on sorted ranges)
merge inplace_merge includes	set_difference set_intersection set_symmetric_difference set_union
Heap operations
is_heap is_heap_until (C++11) make_heap	push_heap pop_heap sort_heap
Minimum/maximum operations
max max_element min min_element minmax (C++11) minmax_element (C++11)	lexicographical_compare is_permutation (C++11) next_permutation prev_permutation
Numeric operations
iota (C++11) accumulate inner_product	adjacent_difference partial_sum
C library
qsort	bsearch

 

Defined in header <algorithm>
template< class ForwardIterator, class T > bool binary_search( ForwardIterator first, ForwardIterator last,                     const T& value );	(1)
template< class ForwardIterator, class T, class Compare > bool binary_search( ForwardIterator first, ForwardIterator last,                     const T& value, Compare comp );	(2)

Checks if the sorted range [first, last) contains an element equal to value. The first version uses operator< to compare the elements, the second version uses the given comparison function comp.

Parameters

first, last	-	the range of elements to examine
value	-	value to compare the elements to
comp	-	comparison function which returns ​true if the first argument is less than the second. The signature of the comparison function should be equivalent to the following: bool cmp(const Type1 &a, const Type2 &b); The signature does not need to have const &, but the function must not modify the objects passed to it. The type  Type1 must be such that an object of type T can be implicitly converted to  Type1. The type  Type2 must be such that an object of type ForwardIterator can be dereferenced and then implicitly converted to  Type2. ​

Return value

true if an element equal to value is found, false otherwise.

Complexity

logarithmic in the distance between first and last

Possible implementation

First version
template<class ForwardIterator, class T> bool binary_search(ForwardIterator first, ForwardIterator last, const T& value) { first = std::lower_bound(first, last, value); return (first != last && !(value < *first)); }
Second version
template<class ForwardIterator, class T, class Compare> bool binary_search(ForwardIterator first, ForwardIterator last, const T& value, Compare comp) { first = std::lower_bound(first, last, value); return (first != last && !(comp(value, *first)); }

Example

#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>
#include <vector>
 
int main()
{
    std::vector<int> haystack {1, 3, 4, 5, 9};
    std::vector<int> needles {1, 2, 3};
 
    for (auto needle : needles) {
        std::cout << "Searching for " << needle << '\n';
        if (std::binary_search(haystack.begin(), haystack.end(), needle)) {
            std::cout << "Found " << needle << '\n';
        } else {
            std::cout << "no dice!\n";
        }
    }
}

Output:

Searching for 1
Found 1
Searching for 2
no dice!
Searching for 3
Found 3

See also

equal_range	returns range of elements matching a specific key (function template)