How do you find the minimum of a list of numbers?

Python program to find smallest number in a list

Given a list of numbers, the task is to write a Python program to find the smallest number in given list.
Examples:

Input : list1 = [10, 20, 4] Output : 4 Input : list2 = [20, 10, 20, 1, 100] Output : 1

Method 1 : Sort the list in ascending order and print the first element in the list.

Python3

# Python program to find smallest # number in a list # list of numbers list1 = [10, 20, 4, 45, 99] # sorting the list list1.sort[] # printing the first element print["Smallest element is:", *list1[:1]]

Output:

smallest element is: 4

Method 2 : Using min[] method

Python3

# Python program to find smallest # number in a list # list of numbers list1 = [10, 20, 1, 45, 99] # printing the maximum element print["Smallest element is:", min[list1]]

Output:

Smallest element is: 1

Method 3 : Find min list element on inputs provided by user.

Python3

# Python program to find smallest # number in a list # creating empty list list1 = [] # asking number of elements to put in list num = int[input["Enter number of elements in list: "]] # iterating till num to append elements in list for i in range[1, num + 1]: ele= int[input["Enter elements: "]] list1.append[ele] # print maximum element print["Smallest element is:", min[list1]]

Output:

Enter number of elements in list: 4 Enter elements: 12 Enter elements: 19 Enter elements: 11 Enter elements: 99 Smallest element is: 11

Method 4: Find the smallest element in list.

Python3

# Python program to find smallest # number in a list l=[ int[l] for l in input["List:"].split[","]] print["The list is ",l] # Assign first element as a minimum. min1 = l[0] for i in range[len[l]]: # If the other element is min than first element if l[i] < min1: min1 = l[i] #It will change print["The smallest element in the list is ",min1]

Input:

List: 23,-1,45,22.6,78,100,-5

Output:

The list is ['23', '-1', '45', '22.6', '78', '100','-5'] The smallest element in the list is -5

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Python List min[] Method

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How to find max and min from a list

Finding the maximum and minimum values in a list is pretty easy because of the built-in max and min functions provided by Python. However, you may be wondering what the logic behind these functions is. Let me explain it with a couple of code snippets.

# Pass a list to this function to check for maximum number def max_check[x]: max_val = x[0] for check in x: if check > max_val: max_val = check return max_val

Function to find maximum number of a list.

# Pass a list to this function to check for minimum number def min_check[x]: min_val = x[0] for check in x: if check < min_val: min_val = check return min_val

Function to find minimum number of a list.

To validate our above defined functions, let’s pass a list to them.

# Pass a list to this function to check for maximum number def max_check[x]: max_val = x[0] for check in x: if check > max_val: max_val = check return max_val # Pass a list to this function to check for minimum number def min_check[x]: min_val = x[0] for check in x: if check < min_val: min_val = check return min_val #List my_list = [2, 6, 8, 14, 3, 77, 63] #Printing Values print["Maximum of the list", max_check[my_list]] print["Minimum of the list", min_check[my_list]]

Run

Validate the max and min functions.

Note: The functions will generate an error for empty lists.

Where to Go From Here?

Enough theory. Let’s get some practice!

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Find Smallest Number in Python List

You can find the smallest number of a list in Python using min[] function, sort[] function or for loop.

We shall look into the following processes to find the smallest number in a list, with examples.

• Use min[] builtin function
• Use List sort[] function
• Use Python For Loop

Choose one, based on your program requirements or your own personal performance recommendations.

Example 1: Find the smallest number using min[]

min[] function can take a list as argument and return the minimum of the elements in the list.

In this example, we will take a list of numbers and find the smallest of the list using min[] function.

Python Program

# python program to find the smallest number # list of numbers a = [18, 52, 23, 41, 32] # find smallest number using min[] function smallest = min[a] # print the smallest number print[f'Smallest number in the list is : {smallest}.']Run

Output

Smallest number in the list is : 18.

Example 2: Find the smallest number using sort[] function

We know that sort[] function sorts a list in ascending or descending order. After you sort a list, you have your smallest number at the start of the list if you have sorted in ascending order or at the end of the list if you have sorted in descending order.

Python Program

# python program to find the smallest number # list a = [18, 52, 23, 41, 32] # sort the list, default is in ascending order a.sort[] # smallest number smallest = a[0] # print the smallest number print["Smallest number is: ",smallest]Run

Output

Smallest number is: 18

Example 3: Find the smallest number using for loop

Though finding the smallest number using sort[] function is easy, using Python For Loop does it relatively faster with less number of operations. And also, we do not change the order of elements in the given list.

Python Program

a=[18, 52, 23, 41, 32] # smallest number smallest = a[0] if a else None # find smallest for i in a: if i