std::bsearch

 

C++

Language

Standard Library Headers

Freestanding and hosted implementations

Named requirements

Language support library

Concepts library (C++20)

Diagnostics library

Utilities library

Strings library

Containers library

Iterators library

Ranges library (C++20)

Algorithms library

Numerics library

Input/output library

Localizations library

Regular expressions library (C++11)

Atomic operations library (C++11)

Thread support library (C++11)

Filesystem library (C++17)

Technical Specifications

 

Algorithm library

Constrained algorithms and algorithms on ranges (C++20)
Concepts and utilities: std::Sortable, std::projected, ...
Constrained algorithms: std::ranges::copy, std::ranges::sort, ...
Execution policies (C++17)
is_execution_policy	execution::seqexecution::parexecution::par_unseqexecution::unseq (C++20)	execution::sequenced_policyexecution::parallel_policyexecution::parallel_unsequenced_policyexecution::parallel_unsequenced (C++20)
Non-modifying sequence operations
all_ofany_ofnone_of (C++11)(C++11)(C++11) for_each for_each_n (C++17)	countcount_if mismatch equal adjacent_find	findfind_iffind_if_not (C++11) find_end find_first_of	search search_n lexicographical_compare lexicographical_compare_3way (C++20)
Modifying sequence operations
copycopy_if (C++11) copy_n (C++11) copy_backward move (C++11) move_backward (C++11) shift_leftshift_right (C++20)(C++20) transform	fill fill_n generate generate_n swap iter_swap swap_ranges sample (C++17)	removeremove_if replacereplace_if reverse rotate unique random_shuffle (until C++17)	remove_copyremove_copy_if replace_copyreplace_copy_if reverse_copy rotate_copy unique_copy shuffle (C++11)
Operations on uninitialized storage
uninitialized_copy uninitialized_move (C++17) uninitialized_fill	uninitialized_copy_n (C++11) uninitialized_move_n (C++17) uninitialized_fill_n	uninitialized_default_construct (C++17) uninitialized_value_construct (C++17) destroy (C++17)	uninitialized_default_construct_n (C++17) uninitialized_value_construct_n (C++17) destroy_n (C++17)
Partitioning operations
is_partitioned (C++11) partition_point (C++11)	partition partition_copy (C++11)	stable_partition
Sorting operations
is_sorted (C++11) is_sorted_until (C++11)	sort stable_sort	partial_sort partial_sort_copy	nth_element
Binary search operations
lower_bound	upper_bound	binary_search	equal_range
Set operations (on sorted ranges)
merge inplace_merge	set_difference set_intersection	set_symmetric_difference set_union	includes
Heap operations
is_heap (C++11) is_heap_until (C++11)	make_heap sort_heap	push_heap pop_heap
Minimum/maximum operations
max max_element	min min_element	minmax (C++11) minmax_element (C++11)	clamp (C++17) compare_3way (C++20)
Permutations
is_permutation (C++11)	next_permutation	prev_permutation
Numeric operations
iota (C++11) inner_product adjacent_difference	accumulate reduce (C++17) transform_reduce (C++17)	partial_sum inclusive_scan (C++17) exclusive_scan (C++17)	transform_inclusive_scan (C++17) transform_exclusive_scan (C++17)
C library
qsort	bsearch

 

Defined in header <cstdlib>
void* bsearch( const void* key, const void* ptr, std::size_t count,                std::size_t size, /*compare-pred*/* comp ); void* bsearch( const void* key, const void* ptr, std::size_t count,                std::size_t size, /*c-compare-pred*/* comp );	(1)
extern "C++" using /*compare-pred*/ = int(const void*, const void*); // exposition-only extern "C" using /*c-compare-pred*/ = int(const void*, const void*); // exposition-only	(2)

Finds an element equal to element pointed to by key in an array pointed to by ptr. The array contains count elements of size bytes each and must be partitioned with respect to the object pointed to by key, that is, all the elements that compare less than must appear before all the elements that compare equal to, and those must appear before all the elements that compare greater than the key object. A fully sorted array satisfies these requirements. The elements are compared using function pointed to by comp.

The behavior is undefined if the array is not already partitioned in ascending order with respect to key, according to the same criterion that comp uses.

If the array contains several elements that comp would indicate as equal to the element searched for, then it is unspecified which element the function will return as the result.

Parameters

key	-	pointer to the element to search for
ptr	-	pointer to the array to examine
count	-	number of element in the array
size	-	size of each element in the array in bytes
comp	-	comparison function which returns ​a negative integer value if the first argument is less than the second, a positive integer value if the first argument is greater than the second and zero if the arguments are equal. key is passed as the first argument, an element from the array as the second. The signature of the comparison function should be equivalent to the following:  int cmp(const void *a, const void *b); The function must not modify the objects passed to it and must return consistent results when called for the same objects, regardless of their positions in the array. ​

Return value

Pointer to the found element or null pointer if the element has not been found.

Notes

Despite the name, neither C nor POSIX standards require this function to be implemented using binary search or make any complexity guarantees.

The two overloads provided by the C++ standard library are distinct because the types of the parameter comp are distinct (language linkage is part of its type)

Example

Run this code

#include <cstdlib>
#include <iostream>
 
int compare(const void *ap, const void *bp)
{
    const int *a = (int *) ap;
    const int *b = (int *) bp;
    if(*a < *b)
        return -1;
    else if(*a > *b)
        return 1;
    else
        return 0;
}
 
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    const int ARR_SIZE = 8;
    int arr[ARR_SIZE] = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 };
 
    int key1 = 4;
    int *p1 = (int *) std::bsearch(&key1, arr, ARR_SIZE, sizeof(arr[0]), compare);
    if(p1)
        std::cout << "value " << key1 << " found at position " << (p1 - arr) << '\n';
     else
        std::cout << "value " << key1 << " not found\n";
 
    int key2 = 9;
    int *p2 = (int *) std::bsearch(&key2, arr, ARR_SIZE, sizeof(arr[0]), compare);
    if(p2)
        std::cout << "value " << key2 << " found at position " << (p2 - arr) << '\n';
     else
        std::cout << "value " << key2 << " not found\n";
}

Output:

value 4 found at position 3
value 9 not found

See also

qsort	sorts a range of elements with unspecified type (function)
equal_range	returns range of elements matching a specific key (function template)