How fast can you make linear search?

Question

I\'m looking to optimize this linear search:

static int
linear (const int *arr, int n, int key)
{
        int i = 0;
        while (i < n) {
                      


        

Answer 1

loop backwards, this might be translated...

// loop backward

for (int i = arraySize - 1; i >=0; --i)

...to this( "could be" faster ):

    mov cx, arraySize - 1
detectionHere:
    ...
    loop detectionHere   

Other than that, only binary search can make searching faster

Answer 2

Well, you could use pointers...

static int linear(const int *array, int arraySize, int key) {
    int i;

    for(i = 0; i < arraySize; ++i) {
        if(*array >= key) {
            return i;
        }

        ++array;
    }

    return arraySize;
}