Advantages of Linear Search
- Simplicity: Linear search is one of the simplest search algorithms to understand and implement.
- Efficiency for small data sets: For small data sets, linear search can be more efficient than other search algorithms that require preprocessing or sorting.
- Unsorted data: Linear search can be used to search unsorted data without any prior sorting.
- Real-time applications: Linear search can be useful in real-time applications where the data set is constantly changing.
- Limited memory overhead: Linear search requires minimal memory overhead, making it suitable for systems with limited memory resources.
What is linear search useful for?
Linear search is a fundamental search algorithm that iterates through a list of elements one by one, comparing each element to the target value. If the target value is found, the search stops and returns the index of the element. Otherwise, the search continues until the end of the list is reached, at which point it returns -1 to indicate that the target value was not found.