Given a sorted list of integers of length N, determine if an element x is in the list
The problem to solve is:
Given a sorted list of integers of length N, determine if an element x is in the list without performing any multiplication, division, or bit-shift operations. Do this in O(log N) time.
I have solved this problem using a modified binary search, but I'm not sure if this satisfies the time complexity required. Is there a better solution?
def get_mid(start, end):
mid = start + 1
sum_ = start + end
prev = mid
while mid < end and (mid + mid) != sum_ and (mid + mid + 1) != sum_:
prev = mid
mid += mid
if mid > end:
return prev
return mid
def bin_search(arr, x):
start, end = 0, len(arr) - 1
while start <= end:
mid = get_mid(start, end)
if mid == 1:
return x in arr[:end]
if x > arr[mid]:
start = mid + 1
elif x < arr[mid]:
end = mid - 1
else:
return True
return False
Solution 1:
We can find the index of x
if it exists by constructing the index bit-by-bit:
def find_idx_sorted(arr, x):
powers_of_two = [1]
while powers_of_two[-1] < len(arr):
powers_of_two.append(powers_of_two[-1] + powers_of_two[-1])
idx = 0
for pot in reversed(powers_of_two):
if idx + pot < len(arr) and x >= arr[idx + pot]:
idx += pot
return idx
Then all we need to do:
def contains_sorted(arr, x):
return arr[find_idx_sorted(arr, x)] == x