I wish to search for an integer in a vector of integer. I have two candidates fo

Question

I wish to search for an integer in a vector of integer. I have two candidates for the job:

Binary Search

Find

It seems that Binary Search is the best candidate for the job as although I have to sort the vector, the total running time will be O(NLog2N) assuming quicksort take O(NLog2N) and searching takes O(Log2N).

The running time for Find will be O(N).

It seems such clear cut that Binary Search is superior to Find, why did the committee of C++ still have Find in the algorithm library?

I am sure the C++ committee had their reasons for including Find, what benefits of Find am I missing or how is Find superior to Binary Search?

Explanation / Answer

Not every list is sorted, yet sometimes there are things we'd like to find.

Also quicksort is O(n log n), which means it takes longer than O(n).

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