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Learn Data Structures and Algorithms in C#

Traversal and Searching in an Array

Explore how to traverse arrays in C# using loops and perform searching with linear and binary search methods. Understand when to use each search technique based on array order and analyze their time and space complexity for efficient problem-solving.

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At this point, the core array operations are established. Reading or updating a single element is only one aspect. Effective use of arrays also requires traversing them and locating elements. This lesson covers traversal and searching, which are fundamental operations in array-based problems.

Traversal (Iterate through the array)

Traversal means going through every element of an array, one at a time, from the first to the last. It is a commonly used operation and serves as the foundation for almost everything else: searching for a value, adding up a total, printing every element, or checking whether a condition is met.

How traversal works

To traverse an array in C#, we use a loop that visits each element one at a time, from start to end. Think of it like reading through our scorecard from game 1 to the last game, one row at a time. We do not skip any entry and we do not jump ahead. We simply go through each one in order.

A common way to traverse an array is with a foreach loop, where element is the current item being accessed from the array during each iteration. This allows us to process every value one by one without manually managing indices.

foreach (var element in array)
{
    // Do something with element
}

Consider a scores array { 88, 95, 70, 82, 91 }. The following illustration shows how the loop visits each element one at a time from left to right:

C# implementation

The following code shows how to traverse the scores array and print each element:

C# 14.0
int[] scores = { 88, 95, 70, 82, 91 };
foreach (int score in scores)
{
    Console.WriteLine(score);
}
Traversing an array

The loop goes through the scorecard from game 1 to game 5, printing each score in the order it was recorded. Unlike access or update, which go straight to one position, traversal visits every element in sequence. The larger the array, the longer it takes. ...