Array Search

Array Search is a searching algorithm used to search for an element in an array. It traverses through the array and checks each element one by one until it finds the desired element.

How does it work?

The Array Search algorithm starts by checking the first element of the array. If the element is the desired element, the algorithm terminates and returns the index of the element. If the element is not the desired element, the algorithm checks the next element in the array. This process continues until either the desired element is found or the end of the array is reached.

Example implementation

Here is an example implementation of Array Search in Python:

def array_search(arr, x):
    for i in range(len(arr)):
        if arr[i] == x:
            return i
    return -1

This implementation takes an array and an element to search for. It then iterates through the array and checks each element. If it finds the desired element, it returns the index of the element. If it reaches the end of the array without finding the element, it returns -1.

Big O Notation

The worst-case time complexity of Array Search is O(n). This is because in the worst case, the algorithm must iterate through the entire array to find the desired element.

Conclusion

Array Search is a simple but effective searching algorithm for arrays. It can be easily implemented in most programming languages and is useful for searching small arrays. However, for larger arrays, more efficient searching algorithms such as Binary Search should be used.