Finding smallest value in an array most efficiently

Question

There are N values in the array, and one of them is the smallest value. How can I find the smallest value most efficiently?

Answer 1

If finding the minimum is a one time thing, just iterate through the list and find the minimum.

If finding the minimum is a very common thing and you only need to operate on the minimum, use a Heap data structure.

A heap will be faster than doing a sort on the list but the tradeoff is you can only find the minimum.