Shortcuts binary search algorithm

[Leddy]

Has anyone attempted to create a shortcuts binary search algorithm? I’ve been kicking it around but it’s just not working.

Here is my test Shortcut.
https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/53c2a0940acc4a3da3a48b39f507ff15

[sylumer]

I’ve not attempted to create one, until you posted this, but maybe something like this?

• Example - Binary Search.

I’ve tried to use some more explicitly named variables, some comments and even a bit of extra code for debugging to try and help anyone reading it make sense of it. As a result of all of the extra cruft, I’m sure it is running slower.

If you wanted to speed things up, it might make sense to look at a recursive shortcut that splits the list or simply keeps passing it along and effectively turn it into a function / parameter based subroutine.

Alternatively, I’m pretty sure that if your data set was large enough to warrant such a search for performance reasons, that it would further be worth applying JavaScript to the approach as it could then take advantage of browser optimisations. I posted a solution to something else recently that takes exactly that sort of thing to consideration…

Have a list with lot of word in the list

I’m going to offer up something a little different. The algorithms we have reasonably available in Shortcuts are somewhat less optimised than on other solution platforms. This is one instance where it can make a big difference if we just think outside the box a little bit. Shortcut: Example - Unique Words. This example shortcut has two options for generating the unique entries. One is using a comparative loop, like the solutions generally proposed on Reddit. It takes each valu…

Hope that helps.

[Leddy]

1. You’re amazing!
2. It totally made my Shortcut run faster. I have 5000 records that I need to find just one instance of. In my original Shortcut using linear search it took just over 1 minute to find the record I was looking for. Tying into your Shortcut I found my record in under 15 seconds! Much better.
3. I’m going to try your idea about JavaScript and see if I can’t optimize it even more. But it’s amazing that Shortcuts was able to handle the task at good speed. You were right about giving the variables more descriptive names as it can become very challenging to figure where you are in the function.

Thanks again Sylumer, You really showed my that Shortcuts can be used in ways I never thought possible.