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Position of Sign change in long list

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg18691] Position of Sign change in long list
• From: "Martin Rommel" <rommel at semitest.com>
• Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 01:46:07 -0400
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

I have a long list of data points and need to find the position where the
sign changes for the first time.
My first attempt was

test=Table[Sin[Pi i/5000. +1],{i,10000}];

With[{a=Abs[test]},Position[a,Min[a]]]

which works, but is slow. It turns out that Min is relatively slow and
avoiding it can save time. The following is almost a factor 4 faster:

With[{st=Sign[test]},Length[Split[st][[1]]]]

If you can think of a still faster or more elegant solution please let me
know!

Martin

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Position of Sign change in long list
    • From: "Wolf, Hartmut" <hwolf@debis.com>
  • Re: Position of Sign change in long list
    • From: Jean-Marie Thomas <jmt@agat.net>