Ternary Search Algorithm

Ternary search finds the extremum, minimum or maximum, of a unimodal function, or a target value in a sorted array, by dividing the current search range into three roughly equal parts using two dividing points, comparing the function's value or the array elements at those two points, and discarding whichever third of the range cannot contain the answer, repeating on the remaining two-thirds until the range is small enough. When searching a sorted array for a specific value rather than optimizing a function, ternary search requires more comparisons per step than binary search's two-way split and is consequently not faster in practice for that use, but the technique is the standard method for finding the extremum of a unimodal function where binary search does not directly apply.