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Chapter 9: Problem 6

The maximum number of comparisons performed by linear search to find an item in an array of N elements is _________.

Short Answer

Expert verified
Answer: The maximum number of comparisons required for a linear search on an array of N elements is N.

Step by step solution

01

Understand the linear search algorithm

In a linear search, we start at the beginning of the array and compare each element sequentially until we find the desired item or reach the end of the array. In the worst-case scenario, the desired item is either not in the array or it is the last element in the array.
02

Determine the worst-case number of comparisons

In the worst-case scenario for a linear search, we would have to compare every element in the array before finding the target item or determining it is not in the array. In other words, the maximum number of comparisons required for a linear search on an array of N elements would be equal to N.
03

Present the final answer

The maximum number of comparisons performed by the linear search to find an item in an array of N elements is N.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

If an array is sorted in ________ order, the values are stored from highest to lowest.

Which sort, bubble sort or selection sort, would require fewer passes to sort a set of data that is already in the desired order?

Assume that empName and empID are two parallel arrays of size numEmp that hold employee data. Write a pseudocode algorithm that sorts the empID array in ascending ID number order (using any sort you wish), such that the two arrays remain parallel. That is, after sorting, for all indexes in the arrays, empName [ index ] must still be the name of the employee whose ID is in empID [ index ].

The _________ search algorithm steps sequentially through an array, comparing each item with the search value.

The _________ search algorithm requires that the array’s contents be sorted.
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