Finding multiple entries with binary search

There is no such functions, but you can write a simple one using std::lower_bound, std::upper_bound or std::equal_range.

A simple implementation could be

template<class Iter, class T>
Iter binary_find(Iter begin, Iter end, T val)
{
    // Finds the lower bound in at most log(last - first) + 1 comparisons
    Iter i = std::lower_bound(begin, end, val);

    if (i != end && !(val < *i))
        return i; // found
    else
        return end; // not found
}

Another solution would be to use a std::set, which guarantees the ordering of the elements and provides a method iterator find(T key) that returns an iterator to the given item. However, your requirements might not be compatible with the use of a set (for example if you need to store the same element multiple times).

The Object Ordering article of The Java Tutorials has an example of writing your own Comparator in order to perform comparisons on custom types.

Then, the ArrayList (or any other List), the key to find, along with Comparator can be passed into the Collections.binarySearch method.

Here's an example:

import java.util.*;

class BinarySearchWithComparator
{
  public static void main(String[] args)
  {
    // Please scroll down to see 'User' class implementation.
    List<User> l = new ArrayList<User>();
    l.add(new User(10, "A"));
    l.add(new User(20, "B"));
    l.add(new User(30, "C"));

    Comparator<User> c = new Comparator<User>() {
      public int compare(User u1, User u2) {
        return u1.getId().compareTo(u2.getId());
      }
    };

    // Must pass in an object of type 'User' as the key.
    // The key is an 'User' with the 'id' which is been searched for.
    // The 'name' field is not used in the comparison for the binary search,
    // so it can be a dummy value -- here it is omitted with a null.
    //
    // Also note that the List must be sorted before running binarySearch,
    // in this case, the list is already sorted.

    int index = Collections.binarySearch(l, new User(20, null), c);
    System.out.println(index);    // Output: 1

    index = Collections.binarySearch(l, new User(10, null), c);
    System.out.println(index);    // Output: 0

    index = Collections.binarySearch(l, new User(42, null), c);
    System.out.println(index);    // Output: -4
                                  // See javadoc for meaning of return value.
  }
}

class User {
  private int id;
  private String name;

  public User(int id, String name) {
    this.id = id;
    this.name = name;
  }

  public Integer getId() {
    return Integer.valueOf(id);
  }
}