Efficient data structure for best-match lookup

Question

I'm terribly sorry if this has been asked before, I searched about 30 minutes before deciding to post this and didn't find anything.

I have an array of ascending numbers with no precise stepping:

12.34, 103.223, 105.3, 110, 234.45, 329.11 ...

I get a numeric input say, for example 106.45 and I need to rapidly find the closest match in my list. In this case 105.3.

I'm looking for an appropriate data-structure to accomplish this, if you could recommend one.

Insertion and deletion are not performance-critical, but finding the closest match is. The structure can be immutable, the data set doesn't change often.

Isn't a simple binary search (with a sorted array) good enough? — Lior, Sep 07 '12 at 20:46

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 07 '12 at 20:47

1

I'd simply prefer binary search.

answered Sep 07 '12 at 20:47

Akashdeep Saluja

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as I understand it, binary search would only return exact matches... am I wrong? – thwd Sep 07 '12 at 21:02

Efficient data structure for best-match lookup

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