Staircase search algo for sorted 2-d arrays

Author: sarthak-g

Staircase Search/staircaseSearch.cpp

@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+/* Searches the element x in mat[][]. If the  
+element is found, then prints its position  
+and returns true, otherwise prints "not found" 
+and returns false */
+int search(int mat[4][4], int n, int x) 
+{ 
+    if (n == 0) 
+        return -1; 
+    int smallest = a[0][0], largest = a[n - 1][n - 1]; 
+    if (x < smallest || x > largest) 
+        return -1; 
+    // set indexes for top right element 
+    int i = 0, j = n - 1;  
+    while (i < n && j >= 0) { 
+        if (mat[i][j] == x) { 
+            cout << "n Found at "
+                 << i << ", " << j; 
+            return 1; 
+        } 
+        if (mat[i][j] > x) 
+            j--; 
+        else // if mat[i][j] < x 
+            i++; 
+    } 
+  
+    cout << "n Element not found"; 
+    return 0; // if ( i==n || j== -1 ) 
+} 
+  
+// Driver code 
+int main() 
+{ 
+    int mat[4][4] = { { 10, 20, 30, 40 }, 
+                      { 15, 25, 35, 45 }, 
+                      { 27, 29, 37, 48 }, 
+                      { 32, 33, 39, 50 } }; 
+    search(mat, 4, 29); 
+  
+    return 0; 
+}