Used to search a list to see if it contains a particular item and to locate it if it does. The list needs to be in alphabetical (or some other) order, and the binary search algorithm identifies the middle term in the list and compares it with the search item. If it is the same the search is complete; if not it identifies the half of the list in which the item would be, and the other half is discarded. The process is repeated until the item is located or the list consists of only one item, in which case the item was not contained in the original list.