bs 5 search element in rotated sorted array ii

Опубликовано: 19 Июль 2026
на канале: CodeIgnite
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certainly! searching in a rotated sorted array can be a bit tricky, especially when duplicates are present. in this tutorial, we'll cover how to search for a target element in a rotated sorted array that may contain duplicates using a binary search approach.

understanding the problem

a *rotated sorted array* is an array that has been rotated at some pivot. for example, the array `[0, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7]` could be rotated to form `[4, 5, 6, 7, 0, 1, 2]`.

the goal is to search for a target value in this array. the challenge is that the array might have duplicates, which complicates the binary search algorithm.

approach

1. **binary search logic**: in a regular sorted array, binary search can be efficiently applied. however, in a rotated array, we need to determine which half of the array is sorted, and then decide whether to search in the left or right half.

2. **handling duplicates**: when duplicates are present, the decision to move left or right isn't always clear. if the left and right values are equal, we can't determine which side is sorted, so we can simply move the left pointer up by one to skip the duplicate.

steps to implement

1. initialize two pointers, `left` and `right`, to the start and end of the array.
2. while `left` is less than or equal to `right`, do the following:
calculate the middle index.
check if the middle element is the target.
determine which side of the array is sorted.
decide to search in the left or right half based on the sorted side.
if there are duplicates, increment `left` or decrement `right` as needed.

example code

here is a python implementation for searching in a rotated sorted array with duplicates:



explanation of the code

we initialize `left` and `right` pointers.
in the while loop, we calculate the `mid` index and check if the middle element is the target.
we handle duplicates by checking if the elements at `left`, `mid`, and `right` are the same, and adjust the pointers accord ...

#BinarySearch #RotatedSortedArray #numpy
rotated sorted array
binary search
search algorithm
array rotation
duplicates handling
efficient search
time complexity
space complexity
sorted array properties
edge cases
performance optimization
search in rotated array
algorithm complexity
iterative search
divide and conquer