Why is there a List<T>.BinarySearch(...)?

user_303685 0
Viewed 10757

I'm looking at List and I see a BinarySearch method with a few overloads, and I can't help wondering if it makes sense at all to have a method like that in List?

Why would I want to do a binary search unless the list was sorted? And if the list wasn't sorted, calling the method would just be a waste of CPU time. What's the point of having that method on List?

binary-search list collections c#
9 Answers

Some pseudo code:

if List is sorted
   use the BinarySearch method
else if List is not sorted and you think sorting it is "waste of CPU time"
   use a different algorithm that is more suitable and efficient
user_20938800
Related