simplifiying the binary search

searches/binary_search.py

@@ -322,6 +322,25 @@
     return last_result
 
 
+# binary search uses divide and conquer
+# We will leverage the fact that our list is sorted
+def binary_search2(l, target, low=None, high=None):
+    if low is None:
+        low = 0
+    if high is None:
+        high = len(l) - 1
+    if high < low:
+        return -1
+
+    midpoint = (low + high) // 2
+    if l[midpoint] == target:
+        return midpoint
+    elif target < l[midpoint]:
+        return binary_search(l, target, low, midpoint - 1)
+    else:
+        return binary_search(l, target, midpoint + 1, high)
+
+
 searches = (  # Fastest to slowest...
     binary_search_std_lib,
     binary_search,
@@ -358,3 +377,7 @@
         print(f"{target} was not found in {collection}.")
     else:
         print(f"{target} was found at position {result} of {collection}.")
+
+    # Testing the binary search 2
+    mylist = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
+    print(binary_search(mylist, 10))