C#•3y ago

❔ Applying binary search into my project

I need help with implementing binary search in this project
https://gist.github.com/Programmer-Faraj/fdc814033943b69af8bdf19a00b83b14

Gist

This is an assignment project from my course

This is an assignment project from my course . GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

JakenVeina•4/24/23, 5:08 AM

to copy from #help-0

JakenVeina•4/24/23, 5:08 AM

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.stringcomparer?view=net-8.0

StringComparer Class (System)

Represents a string comparison operation that uses specific case and culture-based or ordinal comparison rules.

dance?•4/24/23, 8:01 AM

The king of kingsOP•4/24/23, 3:45 PM

Thanks a lot, I'll go head and modify the current pattern of the Binary search, so it does the search alphabetically. But before I do that I have a question for you.

Jimmacle•4/24/23, 4:18 PM

JJakenVeina to copy from #help-0

The king of kingsOP•4/25/23, 7:19 AM

Hey again, are you available?

JakenVeina•4/26/23, 2:41 AM

you got a question, ask it

Jimmacle•4/26/23, 2:42 AM

you'll hear back tomorrow kek

The king of kingsOP•4/26/23, 4:10 AM

Ok! Awesome. Thank you guys a lot.

The king of kingsOP•4/26/23, 4:11 AM

seems like we have different timezones, I'm from Sweden btw.

The king of kingsOP•4/26/23, 4:31 AM

In order to apply Binary search alphabetically, I would need to convert char to a number since the first letter of each word represents a char, so how do I go and do that?

Jimmacle•4/26/23, 4:48 AM

why do you think you need to convert a char to a number?

Jimmacle•4/26/23, 4:48 AM

binary search just needs a sorted array, as long as the values are sortable you can use them directly

The king of kingsOP•4/26/23, 4:50 AM

Oh! Really. I though I should convert first, because my values are strings in a list and not numbers.

Jimmacle•4/26/23, 4:50 AM

what do you need numbers for?

The king of kingsOP•4/26/23, 4:51 AM

to find the index of each char I guess

The king of kingsOP•4/26/23, 4:51 AM

or maybe I'm wrong

The king of kingsOP•4/26/23, 4:52 AM

how would binary search find the element if they're a collection of strings

Jimmacle•4/26/23, 4:53 AM

because binary search depends on sorting

Jimmacle•4/26/23, 4:53 AM

you can sort anything as long as you can compare the elements

The king of kingsOP•4/26/23, 4:55 AM

Aha! Ok! Wow, I didn't touch into more deeply in this topic, but I learned something now.

The king of kingsOP•4/26/23, 4:56 AM

The king of kingsOP•4/26/23, 4:57 AM

I guess the same context follows for strings as well as for integers, except I need to use the compare method instead

The king of kingsOP•4/26/23, 4:58 AM

JJimmacle why do you think you need to convert a char to a number?

JakenVeina•4/26/23, 4:58 AM

I mean, that is pretty much what he's doing. That's what does. Takes in two strings and spits out a number that you can use for sorting.

Jimmacle•4/26/23, 4:58 AM

but that's not what he was asking

JakenVeina•4/26/23, 4:58 AM

ah, fair enough

JakenVeina•4/26/23, 4:59 AM

I didn't read closely enough

The king of kingsOP•4/26/23, 4:59 AM

Oh! Stupid me

The king of kingsOP•4/26/23, 5:00 AM

since I'm using the Compare() method, why the hell I've been thinking about converting a char to a number then

Jimmacle•4/26/23, 5:00 AM

exactly

JakenVeina•4/26/23, 5:00 AM

The king of kingsOP•4/26/23, 5:01 AM

Logical thinking is very great skill and I'm missing it unfortunately

The king of kingsOP•4/26/23, 5:03 AM

But guys, why I'm getting those errors above?

The king of kingsOP•4/26/23, 5:04 AM

wait a minute this is the issue

SG97•4/26/23, 5:07 AM

because you're trying to return an when the methods specifies it returns a

Jimmacle•4/26/23, 5:07 AM

consider what the number means and what you actually want to return from the method

The king of kingsOP•4/26/23, 5:07 AM

Ok! I see what you mean.

The king of kingsOP•4/26/23, 5:10 AM

Ok! That's a bit hard to figure out actually.

JakenVeina•4/26/23, 5:10 AM

how so?

The king of kingsOP•4/26/23, 5:16 AM

I don't know

The king of kingsOP•4/26/23, 5:24 AM

I mean the method compares and returns integer, I'm not sure why it says you can't convert int to string

Jimmacle•4/26/23, 5:26 AM

because you can't

Jimmacle•4/26/23, 5:27 AM

the integer isn't what you want to return, think about what that integer is in this context

JakenVeina•4/26/23, 5:27 AM

what method?

JakenVeina•4/26/23, 5:27 AM

what method compares and returns integer?

The king of kingsOP•4/26/23, 5:33 AM

Ok! So the Compare() method compares the strings and the returns an inte either 0 or -1 or 1 based on the comparison in my case I'm already returning an int which's -1 which's wrong because that int should be the outcome of the method not hardcoded, makes sense?

JakenVeina•4/26/23, 5:33 AM

yyyyyessss

JakenVeina•4/26/23, 5:33 AM

except for the "already" part

The king of kingsOP•4/26/23, 5:33 AM

and that's why it saying