bsearch v1.0.0

bsearch

Utility functions for performing binary search in various scenarios (sync/async, ints/arrays/floats).

Available functions

API reference

https://apiref.page/package/bsearch

Example: Looking up chapter from page number

Suppose you have an array of chapters in a book.

const book = [
  { page: 0, chapter: 'Front Cover' },
  { page: 2, chapter: 'Preamble' },
  { page: 5, chapter: 'Table of Contents' },
  { page: 8, chapter: 'Chapter 1' },
  { page: 29, chapter: 'Chapter 2' },
  { page: 48, chapter: 'Chapter 3' },
]

To answer the question: “What chapter am I on if I’m on page 20?”

• Translate the question into “What is the last chapter I have started?”
• Define “I have started” as “I’m on or after the chapter’s first page.”

With that, the following code finds the answer:

import * as bsearch from 'bsearch'
const chapter = bsearch.lastElement(book, (chapter) => 20 >= chapter.page)

Example: Insertion index

Suppose you have an array of numbers.

const numbers = [1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19]

You want to insert a new number n into the array while maintaining the sorted order. There are two ways:

• Finding the first possible insertion index:

  const indexToInsertBefore = bsearch.firstIndex(numbers, (x) => n <= x)
  const insertionIndex =
    indexToInsertBefore === -1 ? numbers.length : indexToInsertBefore

• Finding the last possible insertion index:

  const indexToInsertAfter = bsearch.lastIndex(numbers, (x) => n >= x)
  const insertionIndex = indexToInsertBefore + 1

Example: Text fitting

Suppose you want to draw some text in a canvas. You want to find out what is the largest possible font size that will fit the text within a given width.

const fontSize = bsearch.largestInt(1, 1000, (fontSize) => {
  ctx.font = `${fontSize}px sans-serif`
  return ctx.measureText(text).width <= availableWidth
})