Binary Search Example in Python

While learning Python I am attending several online courses on computer science, data structures, and algorithms. One of the topics covered is binary search.

Binary search is all about finding items in a sorted list quickly. The key here is sorted. If I know the list is sorted, I can perform binary search and be assured I can find the item very quickly. There is a formula for how many guesses (x) it will take to find an item from a list containing n items.

It will take x guesses, where x is the smallest integer such that 2^x > n.

For example, if I have a sorted list of 10,000 integers. Worst case is that it takes 14 guesses to find any number in the list.

2^x > 10000

2¹³ = 8192 < 10000 < 2¹⁴ = 16384

Therefore, x = 14. The maximum number of guesses is 14.

To show this, I can write a sample application in Python that takes a random sample of 10,000 integers, sorts them, and then randomly picks an integer for binary search to find.

import random


def binary_search(lst, integer):

    lower_bound = 0
    upper_bound = len(lst) - 1
    number_guesses = 0

    while True:
        index = (lower_bound + upper_bound) // 2

        guess = lst[index]
        number_guesses += 1

        if guess == integer:
            break

        if guess > integer:
            upper_bound = index - 1
        else:
            lower_bound = index + 1

    return number_guesses


print 'Number     Guesses'

for _ in range(30):
    integers = random.sample(range(50000), 10000)

    integer_to_find = random.choice(integers)

    sorted_integers = sorted(integers)

    guesses = binary_search(sorted_integers, integer_to_find)

    print '{:6}     {:7}'.format(integer_to_find, guesses)

When I run this code I get 30 samples of binary search. Below is sample output showing the number to find and the number of guesses it took to find the number. In the worst case, it only takes 14 guesses to find the number.

Number     Guesses
 38942          12
  2934          13
  8562          12
 28035          13
 18510           9
 48935          13
 11319          14
 15053          13
 42115          14
 21968          13
 35387          14
 46800          13
 35737          12
 46956          12
 39489          14
 16086          13
 30011          11
 43529          11
 37821           2
 23551          14
  4016          13
  7491          13
 25928          14
 17469           5
  4688          13
   995          13
 38501          13
 38212          11
 42038          14
 42596          12

If I change the sample size to 1000 integers, it will take at most 10 guesses.

2⁹ = 512 < 1000 < 2¹⁰ = 1024

Number     Guesses
  6323           9
 22853           7
 25667          10
 43520          10
 13567          10
 22766          10
 32693          10
 48141          10
 35584          10
 18677          10
 44205           6
  2849          10
 11923          10
   828          10
 46147           6
 20458          10
 10536           9
 36059          10
 18923           9
 17181           9
 24803           8
 18641          10
  9734           8
 42318          10
 27811          10
 42693          10
 15971          10
 23070           8
 18226           9
 34827           8

As the number of items (n) grows exponentially, it is amazing how quickly binary search still finds the number. Using asymptotic notation, binary search is O(log n), which is really nice.

Binary search is brilliant!