Algorithm
esse quam videri
Definition
A set of rules, or instructions, to perform a calculation or other problem-solving operations.
Algorithms can be all sorts of things!
Relevance
Often, you'll need the same operation performed with different data, writing algorithms that can do this will let you reuse more code!
Explanation
An algorithm is a set of instructions used to perform a task. These tasks can be a multitude of things, such as sorting a list, finding an element in a list, squaring a number, etc.
Example
// An example of a simple algorithm to search for an element in a list may look like the following
bool Search(string name, List<string> contacts)
{
for(int i = 0; i < contacts.Count; i++)
{
if(contacts[i] == name)
{
// result found!
return true;
}
}
// result not found after the loop
return false;
}
