Linear Search

Here, We discuss about Linear Search, their implementation in C, time and space complexity and its applications.

What is Linear Search?

Linear Search is the simplest searching algorithm. It searches for an element in the list in sequential order.

Linear search is used on a collection of items. We start at one end and check every element until the desired element is not found.

Implementation

Sample Code in C :

//Linear Search in C

#include<stdio.h>

int linearsearch(int arr[], int n, int x)
{
  //going through array sequencially
  for(int i=0; i<n; i++)
    if(arr[i] == x)
      return i;
  return -1;
}

int main()
{
  int data[] = {3, 15, 8, 1, 38, -2, 7};
  int x = 1;
  int n = sizeof(data) / sizeof(data[0]);
  
  int result = linearsearch(arr, n, x);
  if (result == -1)
    printf("Element not found");
  else    
    printf("Element found at index : %d", result);
}
Code language: C/AL (cal)

Output:
Element found at index : 3

Time and Space Complexity

Time Complexity
Worst Case	O(n)
Best Case	O(1)
Average Case	O(n)
Space Complexity
Worst Case	O(1)

Applications

1. For searching operations in smaller arrays (<100 items).

Related:

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