Find the shortest string in an array of string

Question

I need to provide a solution to find the shortest string in an array of string. I was thinking that it should be compare the length of each string in order to return.

This is where I was stuck

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    //find the shortest string in an array of string
    string[] names = new string[3]{
        "Tom", "and", "jerry"
    };

    foreach(string name in names){
        Console.Write(name + ", ");
    }

    Console.ReadKey();
}

Can anyone help me with the compare part and explain it

What result do you expect in your example because "Tom" and "and" have the same length? — Mighty Badaboom
– Mighty Badaboom, Commented Jun 23, 2017 at 9:59
which would you class as the shortest string, "Tom" or "and"? what have you tried? — Sayse
– Sayse, Commented Jun 23, 2017 at 9:59

Mong Zhu · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-23 11:46:42Z

15

this one will find the first shortest string without sorting the collection:

int minLength = names.Min(y=>y.Length); // this gets you the shortest length of all elements in names
string shortest = names.FirstOrDefault(x=>x.Length == minLength);

Explanation: it will check for that element which length is equal to the smallest length in the entire collection.

EDIT:

Can anyone help me with the compare part and explain it

To compare the length of a string use the Length property and the == operator. You can do this of course also in a loop as ChoockY did.

edited Jun 23, 2017 at 11:46

answered Jun 23, 2017 at 10:14

Mong Zhu

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Comments

Salah Akbari · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-23 10:18:51Z

10

Use LINQ:

var shortestString = names.OrderBy(c => c.Length).FirstOrDefault();

edited Jun 23, 2017 at 10:18

answered Jun 23, 2017 at 9:57

Salah Akbari

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3 Comments

adjan Over a year ago

Sorting is slower than simple linear search.

Salah Akbari Over a year ago

@adjan This is not a good reason for someone to downvote. Downvotes are for really bad try or incorrect answeres!!

themiurge Over a year ago

Personally I didn't downwote you, because your answer technically does what the OP is asking for. But as already pointed out sorting is a waste of time in this case. I certainly wouldn't recommend it, especially to a novice. A downvote is entirely justifiable.

Sajeetharan · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-23 10:05:11Z

4

you can do this wiht linq,

var shortestName = names.OrderBy(name => name.Length).FirstOrDefault();

or

string shortestName = names.Aggregate((a1, a2) => a1.Length <a2.Length ? a1 : a2);

edited Jun 23, 2017 at 10:05

answered Jun 23, 2017 at 9:57

Sajeetharan

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1 Comment

Mighty Badaboom Over a year ago

This would end in an exception if there are no entries in the nameslist. I would use FirstOrDefaultinstead.

ChoockY · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-23 10:05:10Z

2

You can use LINQ, as the others say. This is the easiest way to do the job, but i think, you should learn some algorithms. Finding the minimum/maximum value in an array belongs to programming basics.

Here can you read about it: http://www.stoimen.com/blog/2012/05/21/computer-algorithms-minimum-and-maximum/

The pure c# impementation looks like:

string[] names = new string[3]{
     "Tom", "and", "jerry"
};

string minValue = names[0];
foreach (string name in names)
{
     if (name.Length < minValue.Length)
     {
          minValue = name;
     }
}

Console.WriteLine(minValue);

answered Jun 23, 2017 at 10:05

ChoockY

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2 Comments

themiurge Over a year ago

Agreed. Plus, I might add, sorting is a useless waste of time in this case.

Leon kong Over a year ago

Thank you, It worked, I was stuck at the finding max/min part but you saved me, and thanks to everyone helped.

Antonín Lejsek · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-23 10:12:02Z

2

You can use MaxBy for this. And please PLEASE do not sort the entire sequence just to find maximum. This is very wasteful, intentional wasting is the cancer that would kill performance of your software.

answered Jun 23, 2017 at 10:12

Antonín Lejsek

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2 Comments

Martin Mulder Over a year ago

Perhaps MinBy would be better?

Antonín Lejsek Over a year ago

@MartinMulder You are right, thank you. I tend to use only MaxBy and flip sign when necessary, but you are right.

Oisin Carroll · Accepted Answer · 2021-10-02 22:20:26Z

2

Nobody's provided the answer in a one-liner that runs in O(N) time. A better solution is to use .Aggregate:

var shortest = names.Aggregate((s, best) => s.Length < best.Length ? s : best)

answered Oct 2, 2021 at 22:20

Oisin Carroll

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2 Comments

orhtej2 Over a year ago

It was already proposed here: stackoverflow.com/a/44718531/7034621

Praveen Over a year ago

Not all that glitters is gold. This is more memory intensive as compared to having a function returning the min value with basic comparison as also suggested by @ChoockY

manudicri · Accepted Answer · 2018-06-14 07:44:02Z

0

Maybe you can do this:

string[] names = new string[3]{
 "Tom", "and", "jerry"
};
var query = from n in names select n.Length;
Console.WriteLine("Shortest name: " + names[Array.IndexOf(query.ToArray(), query.ToArray().Min())]);

I hope this can be useful to someone

answered Jun 14, 2018 at 7:44

manudicri

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Comments

tbg10101 · Accepted Answer · 2019-10-24 04:26:09Z

Write your own Linq, like this:

public static T1 Min<T1, T2>(this IEnumerable<T1> source, Func<T1, T2> selector) where T2 : IComparable<T2> {
    if (source == null) {
        throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(source));
    }

    if (selector == null) {
        throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(selector));
    }

    bool firstIteration = true;

    T2 minimum = default;
    T1 value = default;

    foreach (T1 v in source) {
        T2 current = selector.Invoke(v);

        if (current == null) {
            throw new NullReferenceException();
        }

        if (firstIteration || current.CompareTo(minimum) < 0) {
            minimum = current;
            value = v;
            firstIteration = false;
        }
    }

    return value;
}

These variable names are bad. It is up to you to improve them.

Zoyeb Shaikh · Accepted Answer · 2022-09-03 11:05:20Z

0

            string[] countries = { "UK", "USA", "INDIA" };

            int? result = null;
            string nameOfCountry = string.Empty;
            foreach (var country in countries)
            {
                if (result == null || country.Length < result)
                {
                    nameOfCountry = country;
                    result = country.Length;
                }
            }
             

            Console.WriteLine(nameOfCountry);

answered Sep 3, 2022 at 11:05

Zoyeb Shaikh

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