Find the nearest/closest value in a sorted List

Question

I was wondering if it is possible to find the closest element in a List for a element that is not there.

For example if we had the valu

Answer 1

Just thinking off the top of my head, if you need to find all closest values in a sorted list, you can find a closest value, then find all values with the same distance away from the target. Here, I use binary search 3 times:

• First to find a closest value
• Second to find the left-most closest value
• Third to find the right-most closest value

In Python:

def closest_value(arr, target):
  def helper(arr, target, lo, hi, closest_so_far):
    # Edge case
    if lo == hi:
      mid = lo
      if abs(arr[mid] - target) < abs(arr[closest_so_far] - target):
        closest_so_far = mid
      return closest_so_far

    # General case
    mid = ((hi - lo) >> 1) + lo

    if arr[mid] == target:
      return mid

    if abs(arr[mid] - target) < abs(arr[closest_so_far] - target):
      closest_so_far = mid

    if arr[mid] < target:
      # Search right
      return helper(arr, target, min(mid + 1, hi), hi, closest_so_far)
    else:
      # Search left
      return helper(arr, target, lo, max(mid - 1, lo), closest_so_far)


  if len(arr) == 0:
    return -1
  return helper(arr, target, 0, len(arr) - 1, arr[0])


arr = [0, 10, 14, 27, 28, 30, 47]

attempt = closest_value(arr, 26)
print(attempt, arr[attempt])
assert attempt == 3

attempt = closest_value(arr, 29)
print(attempt, arr[attempt])
assert attempt in (4, 5)


def closest_values(arr, target):
  def left_helper(arr, target, abs_diff, lo, hi):
    # Base case
    if lo == hi:
      diff = arr[lo] - target
      if abs(diff) == abs_diff:
        return lo
      else:
        return lo + 1

    # General case
    mid = ((hi - lo) >> 1) + lo
    diff = arr[mid] - target
    if diff < 0 and abs(diff) > abs_diff:
      # Search right
      return left_helper(arr, target, abs_diff, min(mid + 1, hi), hi)
    elif abs(diff) == abs_diff:
      # Search left
      return left_helper(arr, target, abs_diff, lo, max(mid - 1, lo))
    else:
      # Search left
      return left_helper(arr, target, abs_diff, lo, max(mid - 1, lo))


  def right_helper(arr, target, abs_diff, lo, hi):
    # Base case
    if lo == hi:
      diff = arr[lo] - target
      if abs(diff) == abs_diff:
        return lo
      else:
        return lo - 1

    # General case
    mid = ((hi - lo) >> 1) + lo
    diff = arr[mid] - target
    if diff < 0 and abs(diff) > abs_diff:
      # Search right
      return right_helper(arr, target, abs_diff, min(mid + 1, hi), hi)
    elif abs(diff) == abs_diff:
      # Search right
      return right_helper(arr, target, abs_diff, min(mid + 1, hi), hi)
    else:
      # Search left
      return right_helper(arr, target, abs_diff, lo, max(mid - 1, lo))


  a_closest_value = closest_value(arr, target)
  if a_closest_value == -1:
    return -1, -1

  n = len(arr)
  abs_diff = abs(arr[a_closest_value] - target)
  left = left_helper(arr, target, abs_diff, 0, a_closest_value)
  right = right_helper(arr, target, abs_diff, a_closest_value, n - 1)
  return left, right


arr = [0, 10, 14, 27, 27, 29, 30]

attempt = closest_values(arr, 28)
print(attempt, arr[attempt[0] : attempt[1] + 1])
assert attempt == (3, 5)

attempt = closest_values(arr, 27)
print(attempt, arr[attempt[0] : attempt[1] + 1])
assert attempt == (3, 4)