Question 10176 – Binary-search-tree

Consider the following program that attempts to locate an element x in a sorted array a[] using binary search. Assume N>1. The program is erroneous. Under what conditions does the program fail?

      var          i,j,k: integer; x: integer;
                   a:= array; [1...N] of integer;
      begin	   i:= 1; j:= N;
      repeat	   k:(i+j) div 2;
                   if a[k] < x then i:= k 
                   else j:= k 
      until (a[k] = x) or (i >= j);
      if (a[k] = x) then
      writeln ('x is in the array')
      else
      writeln ('x is not in the array')
      end; 

Correct Answer: A