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Implementation of Binary Search functions

Introduction

Swift does not offer any way to efficiently search sorted collections. This proposal seeks to add a few different functions that implement the binary search algorithm.

Motivation

Searching through wide arrays (more than 100k elements) is inherently inefficient as the existing Sequence.contains(_:) performs a linear search that has to test the given condition for every element of the array.

Storing data in a sorted array would typically improve the efficiency of this search from O(n) to O(log n) by allowing a binary search algorithm that cuts the search space in half with each iteration. Unfortunately, the standard library has no built-in ability to search on a collection that is known to be sorted.

Proposed solution

The proposed solution is to add three new methods that implement the binary search algorithm, called partitionedIndex(where:), sortedIndex(of:), and sortedRange(of:), as well as a partitioning method called partition(where:). These methods would be added to the Collection protocol as default implementations.

To support future sorted collections, this proposal also suggests the addition of customization points for contains(_:) and index(of:) for collections with Comparable elements: Sequence._customContainsComparableElement(_:) and Collection._customIndexOfComparableElement(_:).

Finally, this proposal suggests the removal of the two existing partition() methods from public API, as they are not as generally useful as the proposed partition(where:) method and are subsumed by the new functionality.

The following arrays will be used in the examples below:

let a = [10, 20, 30, 30, 30, 40, 60]
let r = [60, 40, 30, 30, 30, 20, 10]  // i.e., a.reversed()

  • partitionedIndex(where:) accepts a unary predicate and returns the index of the first value in the collection that does not satisfy the predicate. The elements of the collection must already be partitioned by the predicate. This method corresponds with partition_point in the C++11 STL.

      a.partitionedIndex(where: { $0 < 20 })      // 1

    If you have a binary (two-argument) predicate, like <, you can construct unary predicates for partitionedIndex(where:) that find the lower and upper bound for a given value:

      a.partitionedIndex(where: { $0 < 30 })      // 2 - lower bound
  a.partitionedIndex(where: { !(30 < $0) })   // 5 - upper bound

  • sortedIndex(of:) finds the position of a given value in a sorted collection. If the value isn't found, the method returns nil. An additional version of the method takes a value and a binary isOrderedBefore closure. This method loosely corresponds with binary_search in the C++ STL, but returns the value's index if found, rather than just true.

      a.sortedIndex(of: 30)        // 2
  a.sortedIndex(of: 60)        // 6
  a.sortedIndex(of: 100)       // nil
  r.sortedIndex(of: 60, isOrderedBefore: >)  // 0

  • sortedRange(of:) finds the range of all consecutive elements that are equivalent to a given value. If the value isn't found, the range is empty with lowerBound(value) as its startIndex. An additional version of the method takes a value and a binary isOrderedBefore closure. This method corresponds with equal_range in the C++ STL.

      a.sortedRange(of: 30)        // 2..<5
  a.sortedRange(of: 50)        // 6..<6

  • partition(where:) is a mutating method that accepts a unary (one-argument) predicate. The elements of the collection are partitioned according to the predicate, so that there is a pivot index p where every element before p matches the predicate and every element at and after p doesn't match the predicate. This method corresponds with partition in the C++ STL.

      var n = [30, 40, 20, 30, 30, 60, 10]
  let p = n.partition(where: { $0 < 30 })
  // n == [30, 20, 30, 30, 10, 40, 60]
  // p == 5

    After partitioning, the predicate returns true for every element in n.prefix(upTo: p) and false for every element in n.suffix(from: p).

Detailed design

The proposed APIs are collected here:

extension MutableCollection {
    /// Reorders the elements of the collection such that all the
    /// elements that match the predicate are ordered before all the
    /// elements that do not match the predicate.
    ///
    /// - Returns: The index of the first element in the reordered
    ///   collection that does not match the predicate.
    @discardableResult
    mutating func partition(
        where predicate: @noescape (Iterator.Element) throws-> Bool
        ) rethrows -> Index
}

extension Collection {
    /// Returns the index of the first element in the collection
    /// that doesn't match the predicate.
    ///
    /// The collection must already be partitioned according to the
    /// predicate, as if `x.partition(where: predicate)` had already
    /// been called.
    func partitionedIndex(
        where predicate: @noescape (Iterator.Element) throws -> Bool
        ) rethrows -> Index
        var low = self.startIndex, high = self.endIndex
        while low != high {
            let mid = index(low, offsetBy: distance(from: low, to: high) / 2)
            if try predicate(self[mid]) { low = index(after: mid) }
            else { high = mid }
        }
        return low
    }

    /// Returns the index of `element`, using `isOrderedBefore` as the
    /// comparison predicate while performing a binary search.
    ///
    /// The elements of the collection must already be sorted according
    /// to `isOrderedBefore`, or at least partitioned by `element`.
    ///
    /// - Returns: The index of `element`, or `nil` if `element` isn't
    ///   found.
    func sortedIndex(of element: Iterator.Element,
        isOrderedBefore: @noescape (Iterator.Element, Iterator.Element)
            throws -> Bool
        ) rethrows -> Index?
        {
        let index = try self.partitionedIndex({ try isOrderedBefore($0, element) })
        
        return try (index != self.endIndex) && !isOrderedBefore(element, self[index]) ? index : nil
        }

    /// Returns the range of elements equivalent to `element`, using
    /// `isOrderedBefore` as the comparison predicate while performing
    /// a binary search.
    ///
    /// The elements of the collection must already be sorted according
    /// to `isOrderedBefore`, or at least partitioned by `element`.
    ///
    /// - Returns: The range of indices corresponding with elements
    ///   equivalent to `element`, or an empty range with its
    ///   `startIndex` equal to the insertion point for `element`.
    func sortedRange(of element: Iterator.Element,
        isOrderedBefore: @noescape (Iterator.Element, Iterator.Element)
            throws -> Bool
        ) rethrows -> Range<Index>
}

extension Collection where Iterator.Element: Comparable {
    /// Returns the index of `element`, performing a binary search.
    ///
    /// The elements of the collection must already be sorted, or at
    /// least partitioned by `element`.
    ///
    /// - Returns: The index of `element`, or `nil` if `element` isn't
    ///   found.
    func sortedIndex(of element: Iterator.Element) -> Index?

    /// Returns the range of elements equal to `element`, performing
    /// a binary search.
    ///
    /// The elements of the collection must already be sorted, or at
    /// least partitioned by `element`.
    ///
    /// - Returns: The range of indices corresponding with elements
    ///   equal to `element`, or an empty range with its `startIndex`
    ///   equal to the insertion point for `element`.
    func sortedRange(of element: Iterator.Element) -> Range<Index>
}

The customization points will need to be added to the protocol declarations for Sequence and Collection, with default implementations that simply return nil.

protocol Sequence {
    // existing Sequence declarations...
    
    /// Returns `Optional(true)` if an element was found;
    /// `Optional(false)` if an element was searched for but not found;
    /// `nil` otherwise.
    func _customContainsComparableElement(element: Iterator.Element) -> Bool?
}

extension Sequence {
    func _customContainsComparableElement(element: Iterator.Element) -> Bool? { 
        return nil
    }
}

protocol Collection {
    // existing Collection declarations...
            
    /// Returns `Optional(Optional(index))` if an element was found;
    /// `Optional(nil)` if an element was searched for but not found;
    /// `nil` otherwise.
    func _customIndexOfComparableElement(element: Iterator.Element) -> Index??
}

extension Collection {
    func _customIndexOfComparableElement(element: Iterator.Element) -> Index?? {
        return nil
    }
}

Example usage

As an example of how the partitionedIndex(of:) method enables heterogenous binary search, this SortedDictionary type uses an array of (Word, Definition) tuples as its storage, sorted by Word.

Better explained examples can be found in the Swift playground available here to download.

struct SortedDictionary<Word: Comparable, Definition>:
    Collection, DictionaryLiteralConvertible
{
    var _storage: [(word: Word, definition: Definition)]
    
    // Collection
    var startIndex: Int { return _storage.startIndex }
    var endIndex: Int { return _storage.endIndex }
    subscript(index: Int) -> (word: Word, definition: Definition) {
        return _storage[index]
    }

    // DictionaryLiteralConvertible
    init(dictionaryLiteral elements: (Word, Definition)...) {
        self._storage = elements
            .sorted { $0.0 < $1.0 }
            .map { (word: $0, definition: $1) }
    }

    // key/value access
    subscript(word: Word) -> Definition? {
        get {
            let i = _storage.partitionedIndex(where: { $0.word < word })
            if i != endIndex && _storage[i].word == word {
                return _storage[i].definition
            }
            return nil
        }
        set {
            // find insertion point
            let i = _storage.partitionedIndex(where: { $0.word < word })
            
            if i != endIndex && _storage[i].word == word {
                // update or delete
                if let newValue = newValue {
                    _storage[i].definition = newValue
                } else {
                    _storage.remove(at: i)
                }
            } else if let newValue = newValue {
                // insert
                _storage.insert((word, newValue), at: i)
            }
        }
    }
}

Impact on existing code

The impact of the change will be the availability of four (plus overloads) functions implementing partitioning and binary search and the removal of the existing partition methods.

Removal of partition() / partition(isOrderedBefore:)

The current partition() methods, which partition on the value of the first element of a collection, are used by the standard library's current sorting algorithm but don't offer the more general partitioning functionality of the proposed partition(where:) method. If this proposal is accepted without removing the existing methods, there would be three partition methods available, which seems excessive:

  • partition(isOrderedBefore:)
  • partition() (an overload of partition(isOrderedBefore:) for Comparable elements)
  • partition(where:)

Uses of the existing partition() methods could be flagged or in theory be replaced programmatically. The replacement code, on a mutable collection c:

// old
c.partition()

// new
if let first = c.first {
    c.partition(where: { $0 < first })
}

A thorough, though not exhaustive, search of GitHub for the existing partition method found no real evidence of its use. The discovered uses of a partition method were mainly tests from the Swift project and third-party implementations similar to the one proposed.

Alternatives considered

The authors considered a few alternatives to the current proposal:

  • lower_bound / upper_bound: The C++ STL includes two functions that help when searching sorted collections and when sorting or merging. However, both are subsumed by the functionality of partition_point and its unary predicate, and as such are not needed. Whether these methods should accept unary or binary predicates was also a matter of discussion.

  • binary_search: The STL function analogous to the proposed sortedIndex(of:) method returns only a Boolean value. We determined that a method returning an optional index was more useful: the .none case conveys "not found", and the returned index (when found) provides easy access to the matched element.

Rationale

On May 11, 2016, the core team decided to Reject this proposal (thread). The feedback on the proposal was generally positive about the concept of adding binary search functionality, but negative about the proposal as written, with feedback that it was adding too much complexity to the API.