Binary searching array of custom type

Question

I have an array A of objects, each with the public field Value (double) which have random doubles between 0 and 1. A is sorted by this field. I create double random = 0.25. Now I want to find the first object from A with A[index].Value >= random. Can I do this with int index = Array.BinarySearch() in some way?

Answer 1

Here is an implementation of BinarySearch that you can use. In addition to the other arguments that would normally be accepted, it also accepts a selector which determines the actual object that should be compared for each item, and for the value to find it accepts a value of that type, rather than the type of the array.

public static int BinarySearch<TSource, TKey>(this IList<TSource> collection
    , TKey item, Func<TSource, TKey> selector, Comparer<TKey> comparer = null)
{
    return BinarySearch(collection, item, selector, comparer, 0, collection.Count);
}
private static int BinarySearch<TSource, TKey>(this IList<TSource> collection
    , TKey item, Func<TSource, TKey> selector, Comparer<TKey> comparer
    , int startIndex, int endIndex)
{
    comparer = comparer ?? Comparer<TKey>.Default;

    while (true)
    {
        if (startIndex == endIndex)
        {
            return startIndex;
        }

        int testIndex = startIndex + ((endIndex - startIndex) / 2);
        int comparision = comparer.Compare(selector(collection[testIndex]), item);
        if (comparision > 0)
        {
            endIndex = testIndex;
        }
        else if (comparision == 0)
        {
            return testIndex;
        }
        else
        {
            startIndex = testIndex + 1;
        }
    }
}

To use it is simple enough:

public class Foo
{
    public double Value { get; set; }
}

private static void Main(string[] args)
{
    Foo[] array = new Foo[5];
    //populate array with values
    array.BinarySearch(.25, item => item.Value);
}

Answer 2

Best way would be to roll your own.

public static class ListExtensions
{
        public static T BinarySearchFirst<T>(this IList<T> list, Func<T, int> predicate)
            where T : IComparable<T>
    {
        int min = 0;
        int max = list.Count;
        while (min < max)
        {
            int mid = (max + min) / 2;
            T midItem = list[mid];
            int comp = predicate(midItem);
            if (comp < 0)
            {
                min = mid + 1;
            }
            else if (comp > 0)
            {
                max = mid - 1;
            }
            else
            {
                return midItem;
            }
        }
        if (min == max &&
            predicate(list[min]) == 0)
        {
            return list[min];
        }
        throw new InvalidOperationException("Item not found");
    }
}

Usage:

var list = Enumerable.Range(1, 25).ToList();
var mid = list.Count / 2; //13

list.BinarySearchFirst(c => c >= 23 ? 0 : -1); // 23

Based on Can LINQ use binary search when the collection is ordered?