Find nearest numerical value in Powershell arrays
Q: I'm looking for a more elegant way to get the closest match of a number from an array. I can have difficult things.
Input
## A given array A where to search in
$a = (16/10),(16/9),(4/3),(5/4),(21/10),(21/9)
## A given value B which should be searched for in array A (closest match)
$b = 16/11
Desired output
"Closest value to 16/11 is 4/3"
My current code for solving the problem
## New array C for the differences of array A - B
$c = $a | %{ [math]::abs($_ - $b) }
## Measure array C to get lowest value D
$d = $c | measure -Minimum
## Get position E of value D in array C
$e = [array]::IndexOf($c, $d.minimum)
## Position E correlates to array A
echo "Closest value to $b is $($a[$e])
Notes
- It doesn't have to be an array if a hash table or something else is better suited
- My current code outputs decimal numbers like
1.33333
, instead of fractions4/3
. It would be nice to withdraw the faction - Shortcode is always better
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3 answers
$a = (16/10),(16/9),(4/3),(5/4),(21/10),(21/9)
$b = 16/11
$oldval = $b - $a[0]
$Final = $a[0]
if($oldval -lt 0){$oldval = $oldval * -1}
$a | %{$val = $b - $_
if($val -lt 0 ){$val = $val * -1}
if ($val -lt $oldval){
$oldval = $val
$Final = $_} }
Write-host "$Final is the closest to $b"
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## A given array A where to search in
$a = '16/10','16/9','4/3','5/4','21/10','21/9'
## A given value B which should be searched for in array A (closest match)
$b = '16/11'
$numericArray = ($a | % { Invoke-Expression $_ })
$test = Invoke-Expression $b
$best = 0
$diff = [double]::MaxValue
for ($i = 1; $i -lt $numericArray.count; $i++) {
$newdiff = [math]::abs($numericArray[$i] - $test)
if ($newdiff -lt $diff) {
$diff = $newdiff
$best = $i
}
}
"Closest value to $b is $($a[$best])"
The big difference here is that the inputs are strings, not numbers, so we can keep fractions.
Safety note . Don't use this if the input is owned by the user, as passing user generated strings to Invoke-Expression is obviously a recipe for the problem.
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