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Computer Science Introduction to Algorithms Algorithms in Code Linear Search in Code

Posted by samrat Devkota
samrat Devkota
Courses Plus Student 4,588 Points

is it okay to do this? this code also gives the same result as the code taught in the video. What's the difference?

def linear_search(list,target):
  for item in list:
    if item == target:
      return list.index(item)
  return None


def verify(index):
  if index is not None:
    print("Target found at index: ",index)
  else:
    print("Target not found in the list")

numbers = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
result = linear_search(numbers, 6)
verify(result)

1 Answer

Dane Parchment
MOD
Dane Parchment
Treehouse Moderator 11,075 Points
Dane Parchment
Dane Parchment
Treehouse Moderator 11,075 Points

Yes you are fine, at the end of the day a linear search is simply going through each element of the list until you find the first match.

How you traverse through the list is up to you, so long as you can:

  1. Traverse through each element in the list
  2. Exit the loop upon finding the first match.

You've done both here, so you're good. you understand the algorithm and can apply it.