Search for nearest value in an array of doubles in C++?

Question

I have a sorted array of double values in C++. Is there an STL function that will return the index of the nearest value in the array to a given double value?

For example, given the following array

double myarray[5] = { 1.0, 1.2, 1.4. 1.5, 1.9 };

the function call

search(myarray, 1.6);

should return 3, the index of the element nearest to 1.6, instead of -1 (or some other flag value) indicating that the value 1.6 wasn't found.

Answer 1

maybe std::lower_bound std::upper_bound will help you.

Answer 2

Here is a generic solution using std::lower_bound:

template <typename BidirectionalIterator, typename T>
BidirectionalIterator getClosest(BidirectionalIterator first, 
                                 BidirectionalIterator last, 
                                 const T & value)
{
    BidirectionalIterator before = std::lower_bound(first, last, value);

    if (before == first) return first;
    if (before == last)  return --last; // iterator must be bidirectional

    BidirectionalIterator after = before;
    --before;

    return (*after - value) < (value - *before) ? after : before;
}

You'll notice that I used Bidirectional Iterators, meaning that the function can only work with iterators that can be both incremented and decremented. A better implementation would only impose the Input Iterators concept, but for this problem this should be good enough.

Since you want the index and not an iterator, you can write a little helper function:

template <typename BidirectionalIterator, typename T>
std::size_t getClosestIndex(BidirectionalIterator first, 
                            BidirectionalIterator last, 
                            const T & value)
{
    return std::distance(first, getClosest(first, last, value));
}

And now you end up with a code like this:

const int ARRAY_LENGTH = 5;
double myarray[ARRAY_LENGTH] = { 1.0, 1.2, 1.4. 1.5, 1.9 };

int getPositionOfLevel(double level)
{
    return getClosestIndex(myarray, myarray + ARRAY_LENGTH, level);
}

which gives the following results:

level | index
 0.1  |  0
 1.4  |  2
 1.6  |  3
 1.8  |  4
 2.0  |  4

Answer 3

Is the array guaranteed to be in ascending order? If so, give std::lower_bound a look.

Answer 4

I think my example do exactly what you want :

(I use std::min_element and a functor)

#include <algorithm>
#include <cmath>

const int ARRAY_LENGTH = 5;
double myarray[ARRAY_LENGTH] = { 1.0, 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, 1.9 };

struct CompareDistanceFromLevel
{
    CompareDistanceFromLevel(double cLevel) : level(cLevel) {}

    bool operator()(double lhs, double rhs)
    {
        return std::abs(level - lhs) < std::abs(level - rhs);
    }

private:
    double level;
};

size_t getPositionOfLevel(double level)
{
    double *result;
    result = std::min_element(myarray, myarray+ARRAY_LENGTH, CompareDistanceFromLevel(level));
    return (result-myarray); // returns the index
}

Answer 5

#include "stdafx.h"
#include <limits>

using namespace std;

static const int array_len = 5;
double myarray[array_len] = { 1.0, 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, 1.9 };

int approx_search(const double val)
{
    double min_val = numeric_limits<double>::max();
    int index = 0;

    for(int i=0;i<array_len;++i)
    {
        double diff = abs(myarray[i] - val);
        if(diff<min_val)
        {
            min_val = diff;
            index = i;
        }
    }
    return index;
}
int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
    printf("approximate %d\n",approx_search(1.6));
    printf("approximate %d\n",approx_search(1.7996));
    printf("approximate %d\n",approx_search(1.4996));
    printf("approximate %d\n",approx_search(0.0002));

    return 0;
 }