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.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994
.\"    The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
.\" the American National Standards Committee X3, on Information
.\" Processing Systems.
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.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
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.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
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.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
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.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
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.\"	$OpenBSD: bsearch.3,v 1.7 2007/05/31 19:19:31 jmc Exp $
.\"
.Dd $Mdocdate: May 31 2007 $
.Dt BSEARCH 3
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm bsearch
.Nd binary search of a sorted table
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Fd #include <stdlib.h>
.Ft void *
.Fn bsearch "const void *key" "const void *base" "size_t nmemb" "size_t size" "int (*compar) (const void *, const void *)"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Fn bsearch
function searches an array of
.Fa nmemb
objects, the initial member of which is
pointed to by
.Fa base ,
for a member that matches the object pointed to by
.Fa key .
The size of each member of the array is specified by
.Fa size .
.Pp
The contents of the array should be in ascending sorted order according
to the comparison function referenced by
.Fa compar .
The
.Fa compar
routine is expected to have two arguments which point to the
.Fa key
object and to an array member, in that order, and should return an integer
less than, equal to, or greater than zero if the
.Fa key
object is found, respectively, to be less than, to match, or be
greater than the array member.
.Sh RETURN VALUES
The
.Fn bsearch
function returns a pointer to a matching member of the array, or a null
pointer if no match is found.
If two members compare as equal, which member is matched is unspecified.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr db 3 ,
.Xr lsearch 3 ,
.Xr qsort 3 ,
.Xr tsearch 3
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Fn bsearch
function conforms to
.St -ansiC .