How to get the min and max of an array of numbers in javascript?

Question

What is the best way to get the min and max of an array into two variables? My current method feels lengthy:

var mynums = [0,0,0,2,3,4,23,435,343,23,2,34,34,3,34,3,2,1,0,0,0]
var minNum = null;
var maxNum = null;
for(var i = 0; i < mynums.length; i++) {
  if(!minNum) {
    minNum = minNum[i];
    maxNum = maxNum[i];
  } else if (mynums[i] < minNum) {
    minNum = mynums[i];
  } else if (mynums[i] > minNum && mynums[i] > maxNum) {
    maxNum = mynums[i]
  }
}

Other posts that appear to 'address' this seem to be old and I feel like there must be a better way in 2017.

Possible duplicate of JavaScript: min & max Array values?

Dave
– Dave

2017-04-24 22:17:51 +00:00
Commented Apr 24, 2017 at 22:17 — Dave
– Dave, Commented Apr 24, 2017 at 22:17

NS0 · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-24 22:18:19Z

5

You can just use Math.max() and Math.min()

For an array input, you can do

var maxNum = Math.max.apply(null, mynums);

var minNum = Math.min.apply(null, mynums);

edited Apr 24, 2017 at 22:18

answered Apr 24, 2017 at 22:16

NS0

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5 Comments

Rolando Over a year ago

var mynums = [0,0,0,2,3,4,23,435,343,23,2,34,34,3,34,3,2,1,0,0,0]; Math.max(mynums); // that returns a NaN.

NS0 Over a year ago

Added a solution for an array.

Rolando Over a year ago

Why is it that you have to use apply/null?

Kyle Richardson Over a year ago

.apply passes a this reference and an array of arguments to the method you use it on. When you .apply(null, mynums) you pass each value in the array as an argument to the Math.max() function.

Rolando Over a year ago

Most elegant in this day and age.

Nenad Vracar · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-24 22:29:17Z

0

You can use reduce() and find both min and max at the same time.

var mynums = [0, 0, 0, 2, 3, 4, 23, 435, 343, 23, 2, 34, 34, 3, 34, 3, 2, 1, 0, 0, 0]

var {min, max} = mynums.reduce(function(r, e, i) {
  if(i == 0) r.max = e, r.min = e;
  if(e > r.max) r.max = e;
  if(e < r.min) r.min = e;
  return r;
}, {})

console.log(min)
console.log(max)

edited Apr 24, 2017 at 22:29

answered Apr 24, 2017 at 22:23

Nenad Vracar

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Comments

Yury Pushnov · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-24 22:58:47Z

0

As an alternative, use Lodash min and max functions.

var mynums = [0,0,0,2,3,4,23,435,343,23,2,34,34,3,34,3,2,1,0,0,0];
var minNum = _.min(mynums); // 0
var maxNum = _.max(maxNum); // 435

And take a look at minBy and maxBy functions which also could be very useful.

answered Apr 24, 2017 at 22:58

Yury Pushnov

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