**Short assignment 8: Recursive Binary Search** This assignment will give you a little practice in programming a recursive function. It uses no graphics. You are going to implement a recursive binary search in which you search a sorted list of numbers for a specific number. I've started the recursive function for you: ~~~ python linenumbers # Perform binary search for key on the sublist of the_list # starting at index left and going up to and including index right. # If key appears in the_list, return the index where it appears. # Otherwise, return None. # Requires the_list to be sorted. def binary_search(the_list, key, left = None, right = None): # If using the default parameters, then search the entire list. if left == None and right == None: left = 0 right = len(the_list) - 1 # YOU FILL IN THE REST OF THIS FUNCTION. ~~~ In Python, the special value `None` means "no value at all." (`None` is a keyword in Python.) As you can see from the comment before this function, it returns either the index where key appears in `the_list`, or `None` if key does not appear in `the_list`. A given recursive call takes parameters `left` and `right`, and it looks only in the sublist starting at index `left` and going through and including index `right`. The function requires `the_list` to be sorted. The little bit of code that I've provided makes it so that if `left` and `right` are both `None`, then binary search considers the entire list, setting left to 0 and right to the highest index in the list. For example, suppose that `the_list` is ``` python [27, 78, 105, 135, 411, 431, 434, 468, 493, 501, 525, 534, 551, 654, 780] ``` which contains 15 items, indexed 0 to 14. If I call `binary_search(the_list, 135)`, then I'm considering the entire list, and the return value should be 3, since the value 135 appears at index 3 in `the_list`. If I call `binary_search(the_list, 500)`, the return value should be `None`, since the value 500 is absent from `the_list`. Moreover, the call `binary_search(the_list, 135, 2, 12)` should return 3 since, as before, the value 135 appears at index 3 in `the_list`. Notice that the index returned is the index in the entire list, not the relative index in the sublist starting at index `left`. The parameters `left` and `right` just give the range of indices into the list that we're considering in a given call of `binary_search`. Here's what you need to do in the rest of the `binary_search` function (the part I didn't write for you): 1. If the sublist of `the_list` starting at index `left` and going up to and including index `right` is empty—that is, it contains no items, not even one item—then clearly, `key` cannot be in this sublist. Return `None`. 2. Otherwise, the sublist is not empty: * Compute midpoint, the `midpoint` of this sublist, by averaging `left` and `right`. * If `key` is equal to the item at index `midpoint` of `the_list`, then it has been found. Return this index. * Otherwise, because `the_list` is sorted, you can tell whether `key`, if in `the_list`, is either in the sublist before the midpoint or in the sublist after the midpoint. * If key is less than the item at the midpoint and it's in the list, then it must be in the sublist before the midpoint. Recursively return the result of calling `binary_search` on the sublist starting at index `left` and going up to and including the index just before `midpoint`. * Only one other possibility remains: key is greater than the item at the midpoint, and so if it's in the list, then it must be in the sublist after the midpoint. Recursively return the result of calling `binary_search` on the sublist starting at the index just after `midpoint` and going up to and including index `right`. If you think carefully about the indices, you should be able to write your part in 10 lines of Python, plus comments. Think carefully about how you can determine whether the sublist from index left to index right is empty. Remember that you should not assume that left is always 0, nor that right is always 1 less than the length of the_list; I provide default parameters for left and right, but they can be provided explicitly in a call. I have also provided driver code. Download [binary_search.py](binary_search.py). Here's a sample run: ``` none How many items in the list? 15 The list: [12, 34, 36, 37, 61, 100, 288, 438, 466, 467, 478, 618, 631, 771, 939] What value to search for? 618 618 found at index 11 What value to search for? 37 37 found at index 3 What value to search for? 500 500 not found What value to search for? 3 3 not found What value to search for? ? The list: [12, 34, 36, 37, 61, 100, 288, 438, 466, 467, 478, 618, 631, 771, 939] What value to search for? 100 100 found at index 5 What value to search for? 1000 1000 not found What value to search for? 288 288 found at index 6 What value to search for? ``` # What to turn in Turn in `binary_search.py` with your code replacing where I wrote `# YOU FILL IN THE REST OF THIS FUNCTION`. Also turn in a text file containing the console output from a run of your program. It should be on a list large enough to be interesting but not so large that we can't tell what's going on. Make sure that you have some successful searches and some unsuccessful searches, where you search for values that would be in the midst of the list if they had been present, a value that would have appeared before the first item, and a value that would have appeared after the last item. # Honor Code The consequences of violating the Honor Code can be severe. Please always keep in mind the word and spirit of the Honor Code.