Java Program for Linear Search

Given an array arr[] of n elements, write a function to search a given element x in arr[]. 

ALGORITHM for Linear Search

Step 1: Start 
Step 2: Declare an array and search element as key.
Step 3: Traverse the array until the number is found.
Step 4: If the key element is found, return the index position of the array element
Step 5: If the key element is not found, return -1
Step 6: Stop.

Pseudocode for Linear Search

PROCEDURE LINEAR_SEARCH (LIST, VALUE)
  FOR EACH ITEM IN THE LIST
     IF SAME ITEM == VALUE
          RETURN THE ITEM’S LOCATION
     END IF
  END FOR
END PROCEDURE

Linear Search in Java

Below is the implementation of Linear Search in Java:

Java

// Java code for linearly search x in arr[]. If x
// is present then return its location, otherwise
// return -1
class LinearSearch {
    // This function returns index of element x in arr[]
    static int search(int arr[], int n, int x)
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
            // Return the index of the element if the element
            // is found
            if (arr[i] == x)
                return i;
        }

        // return -1 if the element is not found
        return -1;
    }

    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        int[] arr = { 3, 4, 1, 7, 5 };
        int n = arr.length;

        int x = 4;

        int index = search(arr, n, x);
        if (index == -1)
            System.out.println("Element is not present in the array");
        else
            System.out.println("Element found at position " + index);
    }
}

Output

Element found at position 1

Time Complexity

BEST CASE COMPLEXITY 
In linear search, the best-case occurs when the search element is present at the first location of the array. So the best-case time complexity of the linear search is O(1). 

The best-case time complexity of the linear search is O(1).

AVERAGE CASE COMPLEXITY 
In linear search average case occurs when the search element is present at the random location of the array.so the average case time complexity of the linear search is O(1).
The average case time complexity of the linear search is O(n).

WORST-CASE COMPLEXITY
In linear search, the worst case occurs when the search element is present at the last location of the array So the worst-case time complexity of the linear search is O(1).In the worst case in if the search element is not present in the given array then we need to traverse the entire array to search element. So the worst-case time complexity of the linear search is O(n).
The worst-case time complexity of the linear search is O(n).

SPACE COMPLEXITY

The SPACE complexity of the linear search is O(1)

Linear Search Applications

We use linear search in following things:

• For search item in the smaller array.
• For fast searching 
The time complexity of the above algorithm is O(n).

Please refer complete article on Linear Search for more details!