Understanding the problem

Before we explore any advanced searching techniques, it is important to clearly understand the search problem itself. Searching is the process of locating a specific item within a collection. It could be finding a contact in your phone, locating a book on a shelf, or identifying a file on your computer. In every case, you begin with a target, something you want to find, and you examine the available data to locate it.

Example

Imagine you are a school teacher with 10 students, and you have a sorted list of their exam scores. You want to find the student who scored 85 marks.