Weakness of Binary Search: It Requires a Sorted Data
The greatest weakness of binary search is that it requires the input array to be sorted. If the array is not sorted, binary search will not work correctly. This can be a significant limitation in situations where the data is not already sorted, as sorting the array can be a time-consuming operation.
Consequences of an Unsorted Array:
- Binary search will not find the target element, even if it exists in the array.
- The search will not terminate and may result in an infinite loop.
- The search may return an incorrect element as the result.
What is the greatest weakness of binary search?
Binary search is a highly efficient search algorithm that works by repeatedly dividing a sorted array in half until the target element is found. While binary search is generally very fast, it does have one significant weakness: