A C implementation of the binary search algorithm for Ruby arrays.

The extension adds two methods to ruby arrays: native_bsearch and native_bindex. Both take either an object, which will be compared to the elements of the array using the <=> operator, or a block as a parameter. native_bsearch returns the element matching the parameter and native_bindex returns it's index. Optionally, either method can take two additional number parameters representing the lower and upper bounds of the search.

Note: the array must be sorted according to the output of either the <=> operator or the result of the block (duh), and if there is more than one element matching the target, the search is not guaranteed to return the first element.

To install the gem, simply run gem install native_bsearch.

For use with bundler: gem native_bsearch.

If you want to download and compile the code, you will need the rake compiler gem. Then, all you need to do is run rake compile in the project directory. After that, include the file created in the lib folder, or run rake native gem and gem install pkg/native_bsearch-(version)-(platform).gem to compile and install the gem.

There are currently two versions of the gem available: 0.0.2 and 0.0.5. Versions 0.0.1, 0.0.3, and 0.0.4 have been yanked. The only difference is that 0.0.2 does not support the lower and upper bound parameters.

MIT

This is a modified version of Tyler's binary_search gem.