Book-based Searching
The conversion of names in a telephone book to some sort of number clearly will not provide numbers having a uniform distribution (except via immense effort such as sorting the names and calling them name #1, name #2, etc.) and further, it is well known that some names are much more common than others (Smith, Jones,) Similarly with dictionaries, where there are many more words starting with some letters than others. Some publishers go to the effort of preparing marginal annotations or even cutting into the side of the pages to show markers for each letter so that at a glance a segmented interpolation can be performed.
Read more about this topic: Interpolation Search
Famous quotes containing the word searching:
“I have been searching history to see if really a woman has any precedent to claim the right to have her rights, and I am compelled to say that we men are not so much ahead of women after all, and the only way we have kept our reputation up is by keeping her down—and don’t you forget it!”
—George E. Foster, U.S. women’s magazine contributor. The Woman’s Magazine, pp. 38-41 (October 1886)