bash, find nearest next value, forward and backward

Question

I have a data.txt file

1    2     3    4      5       6        7   
cat data.txt
13 245 1323 10.1111 10.2222 60.1111 60.22222
13 133 2325 11.2222 11.333  61.         


        

Answer 1

You solution looks unnecessarily complicated (storing a whole array and sorting it) and I think you would see the bash solution if you re-thought your awk.

In awk you can detect the first line with

FNR==1 {do something}

so on the first line, set a variable BestYet to the value in the column you are searching.

On subsequent lines, simply test if the value in the column you are checking is

a) less than your target AND 
b) greater than `BestYet`

if it is, update BestYet. At the end, print BestYet.

In bash, apply the same logic, but read each line into a bash array and use ${a[n]} to get the n'th element.