Programming Praxis

There are many applications where you need to keep a small number of items, a set, and check for membership in the set, and there are many algorithms for doing that: a linked list keeps the items in random order to be retrieved by linear search, an ordered array keeps the items in sequence to be retrieved by binary search, a hash table performs some kind of math on the item, various kinds of trees can store and search the items, and so on.

Today’s exercise looks at a simple algorithm that is appropriate for search in a set that isn’t too big, doesn’t change too often, and isn’t searched too many times, where the definition of “too” depends on the needs of the user. The idea is to store the items of the set in a linked list, search the list on request, and each time an item is found, move it to the front of the list. The hope is that frequently-accessed items will stay near the front of the list, so that instead of an average search that requires inspection of half the list, frequently-accessed items are found much more quickly.

Your task is to write functions that maintain a set as a self-organizing list: you should provide functions to insert and delete items from the set as well as to search within the set. When you are finished, you are welcome to read or run a suggested solution, or to post your own solution or discuss the exercise in the comments below.

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