Suppose you are discussing a program with your learning coach, and you want to know why anyone would ever use linear search in a program when it is so inefficient. Which of the following reasons might the learning coach give?
a. Linear search is perfect if the data is sorted.
b. Linear search is perfect if the data has a midpoint.
c. Linear search is perfect if the data has a pivot point.
d. Linear search is perfect if the data is not sorted.
d. Linear search is perfect if the data is not sorted.
The learning coach might give the following reason:
d. Linear search is perfect if the data is not sorted.
Explanation: Linear search is often used when the data is not sorted because it does not require any assumptions about the data structure or order. It simply checks each element in the list one by one until a match is found. However, if the data is sorted, there are more efficient searching algorithms that can be used, such as binary search.