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Intro to Programming / Problem Solving

Binary search

Learn Binary search in Intro to Programming with a focused explanation, a topic-specific example, and a mastery check.

12 min read • Intermediate
intro-programming-023.py
python 
def binary_search(a,target):
 lo,hi=0,len(a)-1
 while lo<=hi:
  mid=(lo+hi)//2
  if a[mid]==target:return mid
  if a[mid]<target:lo=mid+1
  else:hi=mid-1
 return -1
print(binary_search([2,4,7,9,12],9))
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