Finding the nearest value and return the index of array in Python

I found this post: Python: finding an element in an array

and it’s about returning the index of an array through matching the values.

On the other hand, what I am thinking of doing is similar but different. I would like to find the nearest value for the target value. For example I am looking for 4.2 but I know in the array there is no 4.2 but I want to return the index of the value 4.1 instead of 4.4.

What would be the fastest way of doing it?

I am thinking of doing it the old way like how I used to do it with Matlab, which is using the array A where I want to get the index from to minus the target value and take the absolute of it, then select the min. Something like this:-

[~,idx] = min(abs(A - target))

That is Matlab code but I am newbie in Python so I am thinking, is there a fast way of doing it in Python?

Thank you so much for your help!

Answers:

Thank you for visiting the Q&A section on Magenaut. Please note that all the answers may not help you solve the issue immediately. So please treat them as advisements. If you found the post helpful (or not), leave a comment & I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Method 1

This is similar to using bisect_left, but it’ll allow you to pass in an array of targets

def find_closest(A, target):
    #A must be sorted
    idx = A.searchsorted(target)
    idx = np.clip(idx, 1, len(A)-1)
    left = A[idx-1]
    right = A[idx]
    idx -= target - left < right - target
    return idx

Some explanation:

First the general case: idx = A.searchsorted(target) returns an index for each target such that target is between A[index - 1] and A[index]. I call these left and right so we know that left < target <= right. target - left < right - target is True (or 1) when target is closer to left and False (or 0) when target is closer to right.

Now the special case: when target is less than all the elements of A, idx = 0. idx = np.clip(idx, 1, len(A)-1) replaces all values of idx < 1 with 1, so idx=1. In this case left = A[0], right = A[1] and we know that target <= left <= right. Therefor we know that target - left <= 0 and right - target >= 0 so target - left < right - target is True unless target == left == right and idx - True = 0.

There is another special case if target is greater than all the elements of A, In that case idx = A.searchsorted(target) and np.clip(idx, 1, len(A)-1)
replaces len(A) with len(A) - 1 so idx=len(A) -1 and target - left < right - target ends up False so idx returns len(A) -1. I’ll let you work though the logic on your own.

For example:

In [163]: A = np.arange(0, 20.)

In [164]: target = np.array([-2, 100., 2., 2.4, 2.5, 2.6])

In [165]: find_closest(A, target)
Out[165]: array([ 0, 19,  2,  2,  3,  3])

Method 2

The corresponding Numpy code is almost the same, except you use numpy.argmin to find the minimum index.

idx = numpy.argmin(numpy.abs(A - target))

Method 3

Well, more than 2 years have gone by and I have found a very simple implementation from this URL in fact: Find nearest value in numpy array

The implementation is:

def getnearpos(array,value):
    idx = (np.abs(array-value)).argmin()
    return idx

Cheers!!

Method 4

Tested and timed two solutions:

idx = np.searchsorted(sw, sCut)

and

idx = np.argmin(np.abs(sw - sCut))

for computation in a time expensive method. timing was 113s for computation with the second solution, and 132s for computation with the first one.

Method 5

Possible solution:

>>> a = [1.0, 3.2, -2.5, -3.1]
>>> i = -1.5
>>> diff = [(abs(i - x),idx) for (idx,x) in enumerate(a)]
>>> diff
[(2.5, 0), (4.7, 1), (1.0, 2), (1.6, 3)]
>>> diff.sort()
>>> diff
[(1.0, 2), (1.6, 3), (2.5, 0), (4.7, 1)]

You’ll have the index of nearest value in diff[0][1]

Method 6

def finder(myList, target)
    diff = ''
    index = None
    for i,num in enumerate(myList):
        if abs(target - num) < diff:
            diff = abs(target - num)
            index = i
    return index

Hope this helps

EDIT:

If you’d like a one-liner, then you might like this better:

min(L, key=lambda x: abs(target-x))

All methods was sourced from stackoverflow.com or stackexchange.com, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5, cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0