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Medea
Medea

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Linear, Random or Binary Search

For school, we had an assignment in Python where we had to use Linear, Random or Binary Search with a number game.


Linear Search

Linear search is when each item in the list is examined one at a time from the beginning.
An example of linear search code is below:

number = random.randint(1,100)
count = 0
for i in range(1,100):
  count = count + 1
  if i == number:
    print("The number was " + str(number))
    print("You got it in " + str(count) + " guesses!")
    break
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Random Search

Random search is where each item in the list is selected randomly and checked until the correct item is found.
An example of random search code is below:

number = random.randint(1,100)
allnum = []
for i in range(1,100):
  allnum.append(i)
guess = random.choice(allnum)
allnum.remove(guess)
count = 1
while guess != number:
  count = count + 1
  guess = random.choice(allnum)
  allnum.remove(guess)
print("The number was " + str(number))
print("You got it in " + str(count) + " guesses!")
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Binary Search

Binary search is when you cut through the list by halving each time, until you find the number you are looking for.

number = random.randint(1,100)
lowestnumber = 1
highestnumber = 100
guess = round((highestnumber + lowestnumber) / 2)
count = 1
while guess != number:
  if guess > number:
    if highestnumber > guess:
      highestnumber = guess
    print("The number is smaller than " + str(guess))
  if guess < number:
    if guess > lowestnumber:
      lowestnumber = guess
    print("The number is bigger than " + str(guess))
  guess = guess = round((highestnumber + lowestnumber) / 2)
  count = count + 1
print("The number was " + str(number))
print("You got it in " + str(count) + " guesses!")
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Which searching do you think is the most efficient?

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