Interpolation search—a log log N search

Abstract

Interpolation search is a method of retrieving a desired record by key in an ordered file by using the value of the key and the statistical distribution of the keys. It is shown that on the average log log N file accesses are required to retrieve a key, assuming that the N keys are uniformly distributed. The number of extra accesses is also estimated and shown to be very low. The same holds if the cumulative distribution function of the keys is known. Computational experiments confirm these results.