In computer science, a search algorithm is an algorithm for finding an item with specified properties among a collection of items. The items may be stored individually as records in a database; or may be elements of a search space defined by a mathematical formula or procedure, such as the roots of an equation with integer variables; or a combination of the two, such as the Hamiltonian circuits of a graph.
Famous quotes containing the word search:
“So often has my judgment deceived me in my life, that I always suspect it, right or wrong,—at least I am seldom hot upon cold subjects. For all this, I reverence truth as much as any body; and ... if a man will but take me by the hand, and go quietly and search for it ... I’ll go to the world’s end with him:MBut I hate disputes.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)