1) Exit on pressing 'x'. For now I'm using -1 to exit.[/font]
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2) Print a message "Element not found" when an element not present in the array is searched for. Yeah, I'm not able to figure that out :|[/font]
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Didn't the compiler give you a warning message something about [font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif][color=#000000]
BinSearch[/font]
not returning a value? Because it's only returning a value, when it's found the element. Hmm.
What does it return when it finds the element? In what range? Hmm. It returns a zero or positive value.
Hmm. That means negative values aren't used. Hmm.
That means we could use negative values for other purposes, such as indication that the element is not used? Yay! Let's use -1 for indicating that no element is found (that's pretty standard).
We could even use more negative numbers for other error codes, such as the input numElements was negative... That's another story.
But how can we decide if the element is not found? Wait. We already see that the [font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif][color=#000000]
BinSearch[/font]
is only returning a value when it's found something. If it doesn't return, then what happens? Hmmm.
We get to the end of the for loop!
So we know we have to return -1 when nothing is found, and we know that we arrive after the for loop when nothing is found.
Let's put a return -1 after the for loop then!
Yay! We have signalled that we haven't found the element, and we can act upon it by checking the return value of [font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif][color=#000000]
BinSearch[/font]
in Main.
Hmm, that also means we successfully decoupled the logic from the input/output.
In this particular program, we can print stuff differently depending on the return value. If it's -1, we print "nothing found". If it's >= 0, we print the value.
No. I didn't mean that. Just think over what I said in my first post.
"End of for loop" may be misworded. I meant "after the for loop".
The complier says not all control paths return a value. Can you figure out what path doesn't return in your code?
With your modifications the code still produces this warning message so that means you didn1t insert the return -1 where I implied.
And think about it: what control path doesn't return value? The path that doesn't find the value. Just debug it on paper. That is the exact point where you have to insert the return -1.
Maybe my English sucks, but I think this should be clear.
Thanks! No more warnings now. I'm returning -1 outside the for loop in the BinSearch function
But how do I print a message like "Element not found" using that return value -1 ??
if( found == -1 )
{
cout << Element not found << endl;
}
else // if( found >= 0 ) // for other error codes
{
cout << searchKey << " is in position " << found << endl;
}
if( found == -1 )
{
cout << Element not found << endl;
}
else // if( found >= 0 ) // for other error codes
{
cout << searchKey << " is in position " << found << endl;
}
Thanks for replying. Did You mean this:
#include<iostream>
using namespace std;
int BinSearch(int data[], int numElements, int searchKey); // Prototype
int main()
{
int data[] = {1, 4, 5, 6, 9, 14, 21, 23, 28, 31, 35, 42, 46, 50, 53, 57, 62, 63, 65, 74, 79, 89, 95};
int numElements = 23; // Size of the Array is 23!!!
int searchKey;
int found;
for(int i = 0; i < numElements; i++)
cout << data << ", ";
cout << endl;
for(;;)
{
cout << "Enter search key: (-1 to exit) "; // I want to quit when I press 'x'. Please let me know.
cin >> searchKey;
But..[/font]
