Use the same binary-search window as the iterative lesson, but pass lo and hi through recursive calls.

Algorithm

Basic Implementation

basic.pl
use strict;
use warnings;
my @arr = (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13);
my $target = 11;
sub search {
	my ($lo, $hi) = @_;
	return -1 if $lo > $hi;
	my $mid = int($lo + ($hi - $lo) / 2);
	return $mid if $arr[$mid] == $target;
	return search($mid + 1, $hi) if $arr[$mid] < $target;
	return search($lo, $mid - 1);
}
print search(0, $#arr), "\n";

Complexity

  • Time: O(log n)
  • Space: O(log n) call stack

Implementation notes

  • Keep the explicit control flow. Library shortcuts would hide the state changes this lesson is meant to replay.
  • The final output is intentionally small and deterministic for cross-language comparison.
execution replay The checked-in replay follows the language-neutral state table for `search-binary-recursive`.
cross-language comparison This Perl DSA version keeps the same data and final output as every other DSA book in this wave.