Editing Linear search (section)

===Non-uniform probabilities===
The performance of linear search improves if the desired value is more likely to be near the beginning of the list than to its end.  Therefore, if some values are much more likely to be searched than others,  it is desirable to place them at the beginning of the list.

In particular, when the list items are arranged in order of decreasing probability, and these probabilities are [[geometric distribution|geometrically distributed]], the cost of linear search is only O(1). <ref name="knuth">
  {{cite book
  | first=Donald |last=Knuth |author-link=Donald Knuth
  | series = The Art of Computer Programming
  | volume = 3 |title=Sorting and Searching
  | edition = 3rd
  | publisher = Addison-Wesley
  | year = 1997
  | isbn = 0-201-89685-0
  | chapter = Section 6.1: Sequential Searching
  | pages = 396–408
  }}
</ref>