Sequential search in C++

Sequential search

Sequential search is also called linear search or serial search.It is a simple to search an array for the desired value.It follows the following steps to search a value in an array:

Steps

• Visit the first element of the array and compare its value with the required value.
• If the value of the array matches with the required value,the search is complete.
• If the value of array does not match,move to next element and repeat same process.

Loops are frequently used to visit elements of array for searching a value.You can start the counter variable of loop from 0 and move it to the last index of an array.

An example to demonstrate this concept is given below:

Source code

#include<iostream>

#include<conio.h>

using namespace std;

void main( )

{

int array[11]={10,20,30,40,50,60,70,80,90,100,110};

int i;

int n;

int location=-1;//location is initially null

cout<<"Enter value to search:";

cin>>n;

for(i=0;i<11;i++)   //you cannot write "for(i=0;i<=11;i++)" ........writing this will generate an error

if(array[i]=n)

loc=i;

if(loc== -1)

cout<<"Value not found in the array.";

else
cout<<"Value found at index"<<loc;
getch( );
}

Output

Enter value to search:40

Value found at index:3

Reference

The reference of this article has been taken from the book, "Object Oriented Programming in C++" by Robert Lafore.