Exploring Sorting and Searching Algorithms With Golang — Linear Search
Sorting and searching are fundamental operations in computer science and play a crucial role in various applications. Sorting algorithms arrange elements in a specific order, while searching algorithms find the presence and location of a target element within a dataset.
In this article, we will explore some of the most famous sorting and searching algorithms, understand how they work, and analyze their time complexity and efficiency.
Linear Search
Linear search, also known as sequential search, is a simple and straightforward searching algorithm used to find a specific target element within a list or array.
In this search method, the algorithm sequentially checks each element of the list, starting from the beginning, until the target element is found or the entire list has been traversed.
- Time Complexity: O(n)
- Best Case: O(1) when the target element is found at the beginning.
Steps
- Start from the first element
- Compare the target element with the current element.
- If the target is matches with the current element, search is success and return the position or index.
- If target is not found, move to the next element and repeat the comparison
- Continue until the element found or end of the list
- If the target element is not found after checking all elements, the search returns a special value (often -1) to indicate that the element is not present in the list.
Code
So here is the code implementation
Conclusion
Linear search is easy to implement and requires minimal memory usage since it only needs to keep track of the current element during the search. However, its time complexity is O(n), where n is the number of elements in the list, making it less efficient for very large datasets compared to more advanced search algorithms like binary search on sorted lists.
I hope this article helps. Thank you so much for reading. :)
