import math
def bin_search(li, element):
bottom = 0
top = len(li)-1
index = -1
while top>=bottom and index==-1:
mid = int(math.floor((top+bottom)/2.0))
if li[mid]==element:
index = mid
elif li[mid]>element:
top = mid-1
else:
bottom = mid+1
return index
li=[2,5,7,9,11,17,222]
print bin_search(li,11)
print bin_search(li,12)