How To Find The Nearest Numeric Value Within a List With Python

The aim of this page📝 is to show a small function that accepts a list and an integer and returns the closest number from the list to the given value.

“Features” of the 👆 function:

• type hints
• Naming Conventions From Uncle Bob’s Clean Code Philosophy
• Lambdas In Python
• no assignment statements
• see the official docs for the proper explainer of min function
• see Kite’s docs for another, more liberal approach
• the point is that the min function accepts a keyword key parameter that accepts a function with a single param
• this param is an item from the iterable (item from a list) you pass to the min in the first place
• the key=function is a so-called mapping function that transforms each item within a list as per our needs
• here is returns an absolute value of a difference between a given value and each list item

list = [1,5,6,10]
given_number = 7

abs(1-7)  -> 6
abs(5-7)  -> 2
abs(6-7)  -> 1 -> min -> this item is desired -> 6 #RESULT
abs(10-7) -> 3

2. links

• How to find the nearest value in a list to a given one in Python
• https://docs.python.org/3/library/functions.html#min