searching

views updated May 23 2018

searching Locating information in a table or file by reference to a special field of each record, called the key. The goal of the search is to discover a record (if any) with a given key value. There are many different algorithms for searching, principally depending on the way in which the table or file is structured.

If a record is to be inserted in the file, and it is important to ensure that keys are unique, then a search is necessary: the insertion may take place as soon as the search has discovered that no existing record has the new key. Such an algorithm is known as a search and insertion algorithm.

See also table lookup, sequential search algorithm, binary search algorithm, breadth-first search, depth-first search, trie search, heuristic search.

searching

views updated May 29 2018

searching Behaviour by an animal which is directed towards the provision of some necessity (e.g. food, nesting material, or a mate) that has not yet been located.

searching

views updated May 18 2018

searching Behaviour by an animal that is directed toward the provision of some necessity (e.g. food, nesting material, or a mate) that has not yet been located.