{{keywords>wiki library source code example reference}}
===== bsearch =====

<code c>
    #include <stdlib.h>
    void *bsearch(const void *key, const void *base, size_t nitems, size_t size, int (*compare)(const void *, const void *));
</code>


**key**     - The element that is searched for\\
**base**    - pointer to the first element of the array to be searched\\
**nitems**  - number of elements in the array\\
**size**    - size of a single element\\
**compare** - comparison function to compare two elements together.\\

== return values: ==
pointer to an entry in the array that matches the search key.\\
If key not found, NULL pointer returned.\\
    
===== bsearch c Sourcecode Example =====
<code c>
#include <stdio.h> /* including standard library */
//#include <windows.h> /* uncomment this for Windows */

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

int main ( void )
{
  char my_key[10] = "bsearch";
  int  my_elementCount = 4;
  int  my_size = 20;
  char my_strings[][30] = {"c", "example", "bsearch", "coderefer" , "someusefulinformation"};

  /* strcmp is the compare function for this bsearch */
  char *return_value = (char*) bsearch(my_key, my_strings, my_elementCount, my_size, (int(*)(const void*, const void*))strcmp);

  if (return_value) {
    printf("Found \"%s\" in the my_strings array.\n", return_value);
  }
  else {
    printf("Did not found \"%s\" in the my_strings array.\n", my_key);
  }
  
  return 0;
}

</code>

==== output of bsearch(): ====
    user@host:~$ ./bsearch 
    Found "bsearch" in the my_strings array