trekhleb / trekhleb/javascript-algorithms
interpolationSearch may not return the first index with the value
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Description
Details:
Behaviour of interpolationSearch may be considered inconsistent.
For some arrays it will return the index of the first match - expect(interpolationSearch([1, 1], 1)).toBe(0) - while for others it returns the second or third one.
Step to reproduce: interpolationSearch([-1, 0, 0], 0))
Expected result: 1
Got: 2
How did I find it?
Thanks to property based testing framework fast-check.
The property was the following:
import fc from 'fast-check';
fc.assert(
fc.property(
fc.array(fc.integer()).map(arr => [...arr].sort((a, b) => a - b)),
fc.integer(),
(arr, i) => expect(interpolationSearch(arr, i)).toBe(arr.indexOf(i))
)
)
Or:
for any
arr- sorted array of integers - andi- integer value
interpolationSearch(arr, i)should be equivalent toarr.indexOf(i)
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Locate the JavaScript implementation and existing tests for interpolationSearch, then reproduce the [-1, 0, 0] case and compare its result with Array.indexOf. Add regression coverage for duplicate values and ensure the search returns the first matching index for sorted integer arrays.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- javascript
- Domain
- search
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 3/5
- Estimated time
- 1-2 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 45/100