Select Minimum / Maximum

Goal: Find the minimum/maximum object in an unsorted array.

Maximum or minimum

We have an array of generic objects and we iterate over all the objects keeping track of the minimum/maximum element so far.

An example

Let's say the we want to find the maximum value in the unsorted list [ 8, 3, 9, 4, 6 ].

Pick the first number, 8, and store it as the maximum element so far.

Pick the next number from the list, 3, and compare it to the current maximum. 3 is less than 8 so the maximum 8 does not change.

Pick the next number from the list, 9, and compare it to the current maximum. 9 is greater than 8 so we store 9 as the maximum.

Repeat this process until the all elements in the list have been processed.

The code

Here is a simple implementation in Swift:

func minimum<T: Comparable>(var array: [T]) -> T? {
  guard !array.isEmpty else {
    return nil
  }

  var minimum = array.removeFirst()
  for element in array {
    minimum = element < minimum ? element : minimum
  }
  return minimum
}

func maximum<T: Comparable>(var array: [T]) -> T? {
  guard !array.isEmpty else {
    return nil
  }

  var maximum = array.removeFirst()
  for element in array {
    maximum = element > maximum ? element : maximum
  }
  return maximum
}

Put this code in a playground and test it like so:

let array = [ 8, 3, 9, 4, 6 ]
minimum(array)   // This will return 3
maximum(array)   // This will return 9

In the Swift standard library

The Swift library already contains an extension to SequenceType that returns the minimum/maximum element in a sequence.

let array = [ 8, 3, 9, 4, 6 ]
array.minElement()   // This will return 3
array.maxElement()   // This will return 9

Maximum and minimum

To find both the maximum and minimum values contained in array while minimizing the number of comparisons we can compare the items in pairs.

An example

Let's say the we want to find the minimum and maximum value in the unsorted list [ 8, 3, 9, 6, 4 ].

Pick the first number, 8, and store it as the minimum and maximum element so far.

Because we have an odd number of items we remove 8 from the list which leaves the pairs [ 3, 9 ] and [ 6, 4 ].

Pick the next pair of numbers from the list, [ 3, 9 ]. Of these two numbers, 3 is the smaller one, so we compare 3 to the current minimum 8, and we compare 9 to the current maximum 8. 3 is less than 8 so the new minimum is 3. 9 is greater than 8 so the new maximum is 9.

Pick the next pair of numbers from the list, [ 6, 4 ]. Here, 4 is the smaller one, so we compare 4 to the current minimum 3, and we compare 6 to the current maximum 9. 4 is greater than 3 so the minimum does not change. 6 is less than 9 so the maximum does not change.

The result is a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 9.

The code

Here is a simple implementation in Swift:

func minimumMaximum<T: Comparable>(var array: [T]) -> (minimum: T, maximum: T)? {
  guard !array.isEmpty else {
    return nil
  }

  var minimum = array.first!
  var maximum = array.first!

  let hasOddNumberOfItems = array.count % 2 != 0
  if hasOddNumberOfItems {
    array.removeFirst()
  }

  while !array.isEmpty {
    let pair = (array.removeFirst(), array.removeFirst())
    if pair.0 > pair.1 {
      if pair.0 > maximum {
        maximum = pair.0
      }
      if pair.1 < minimum {
        minimum = pair.1
      }
    } else {
      if pair.1 > maximum {
        maximum = pair.1
      }
      if pair.0 < minimum {
        minimum = pair.0
      }
    }
  }

  return (minimum, maximum)
}

Put this code in a playground and test it like so:

let result = minimumMaximum(array)!
result.minimum   // This will return 3
result.maximum   // This will return 9

By picking elements in pairs and comparing their maximum and minimum with the running minimum and maximum we reduce the number of comparisons to 3 for every 2 elements.

Performance

These algorithms run at O(n). Each object in the array is compared with the running minimum/maximum so the time it takes is proportional to the array length.

Written by Chris Pilcher