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European Symposium on Algorithms

ESA 2000: Algorithms - ESA 2000 pp 338–345Cite as

On the Competitiveness of Linear Search

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1879))

Abstract

We re-examine offline techniques for linear search. Under a reasonable model of computation, a method is given to perform offline linear search in amortized cost proportional to the entropy of the request sequence; and so, this cost is at most logarithmic. On the other hand, any online technique is subject to linear amortized cost for some sequences. It follows, then, that no online technique can have an amortized cost of that which one could obtain if given the request sequence in advance, i.e., there is no competitive linear search algorithm.

This work was supported by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L 3G1

    J. Ian Munro

Authors
  1. J. Ian Munro
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK

    Mike S. Paterson

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© 2000 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Munro, J.I. (2000). On the Competitiveness of Linear Search. In: Paterson, M.S. (eds) Algorithms - ESA 2000. ESA 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1879. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45253-2_31

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45253-2_31

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-41004-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45253-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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