README.markdown

Binary Search

Binary Search is a search algorithm that finds the position of a target value, whether alone or part of a record, within a sorted array. It works by comparing the target value to the middle element of the array; if they are not equal, the lower or upper half of the array is eliminated depending on the result and the search is repeated until the position of the target value is found.

source: Wikipedia page for Binary Search

The code

Here is an iterative implementation of the binary search algorithm in Kotlin:

fun <T: Comparable<T>> binarySearch(list: List<T>, key: T): Int? {
    var rangeStart = 0
    var rangeEnd = list.count()
    while (rangeStart < rangeEnd) {
        val midIndex = rangeStart + (rangeEnd - rangeStart)/2
        if (list[midIndex] == key) {
            return midIndex
        } else if (list[midIndex] < key) {
            rangeStart = midIndex + 1
        } else {
            rangeEnd = midIndex
        }
    }
    return null
}