bsearch(3) - Linux man page

Name

bsearch - binary search of a sorted array

Synopsis

#include <stdlib.h>
void *bsearch(const void *key, const void *base, size_t nmemb,size_t size,
int (*compar)(const void *, const void *));

Description

The bsearch() function searches an array of nmemb objects, the initial member of which is pointed to by base, for a member that matches the object pointed to by key. The size of each member of the array is specified by size.

The contents of the array should be in ascending sorted order according to the comparison function referenced by compar. The compar routine is expected to have two arguments which point to the key object and to an array member, in that order, and should return an integer less than, equal to, or greater than zero if the key object is found, respectively, to be less than, to match, or be greater than the array member.

Return Value

The bsearch() function returns a pointer to a matching member of the array, or NULL if no match is found. If there are multiple elements that match the key, the element returned is unspecified.

Example

The example below first sorts an array of structures using qsort(3), then retrieves desired elements using bsearch().

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
struct mi {
    int nr;
    char *name;
} months[] = {
    { 1, "jan" }, { 2, "feb" }, { 3, "mar" }, { 4, "apr" },
    { 5, "may" }, { 6, "jun" }, { 7, "jul" }, { 8, "aug" },
    { 9, "sep" }, {10, "oct" }, {11, "nov" }, {12, "dec" }
};
#define nr_of_months (sizeof(months)/sizeof(months[0]))
static int compmi(const void *m1, const void *m2) {
    struct mi *mi1 = (struct mi *) m1;
    struct mi *mi2 = (struct mi *) m2;
    return strcmp(mi1->name, mi2->name);
}
int main(int argc, char **argv) {
    int i;
    qsort(months, nr_of_months, sizeof(struct mi), compmi);
    for (i = 1; i < argc; i++) {
        struct mi key, *res;
        key.name = argv[i];
        res = bsearch(&key, months, nr_of_months,
                  sizeof(struct mi), compmi);
        if (res == NULL)
            printf("'%s': unknown month\n", argv[i]);
        else
            printf("%s: month #%d\n", res->name, res->nr);
    }
    return 0;
}

Conforming to

SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001, C99