Re: Finding position of an element in a list:
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg84008] Re: Finding position of an element in a list:
- From: dh <dh at metrohm.ch>
- Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2007 07:21:51 -0500 (EST)
- References: <fj89m3$a90$1@smc.vnet.net>
Hi Gopinath,
with version 6 we have the function Nearest:
Nearest[xlis -> Automatic, 6]
hope this helps, Daniel
Gopinath Venkatesan wrote:
> Hello Friends,
>
> (This is an easy problem, but I was unable to get it work in Mathematica, probably because of the precision - I tried setting precision too, still got stuck)
>
> Suppose we have a list, xlis, having some elements, and I have to find one nearest value I am interested in that list. In the below example, I wanted to find the position of a number belonging to list and close to 6 (which is 5.5 located at 7th).
>
> I can do this:
>
> xlis = {0, 1, 3, 10, 4, 5, 5.5, 10.25};
> dropOuterBraces[lst_List] :=
> StringTake[#1, {2, StringLength[#1] - 1}] &[
> ToString[lst]]; (* took from previous help posted by Peter Pein *)
> n1 = Nearest[xlis, 6]
> eval = dropOuterBraces[n1]
> Position[xlis, eval]
> Position[xlis, 5]
>
> As you see, the last but one command returns nothing, and we have to explicitly say the number to return the position.
>
> Or should some other command be used to extract the position of an arbitrary number in a list?
>
> Same with the case of MemberQ command, it gives True for some and False for some. For example, consider this list,
>
> xlis = Table[N[((1 - Cos[(j - 1)/9 \[Pi]])/2) 1.32], {j, 1, 10}];
> dropOuterBraces[lst_List] :=
> StringTake[#1, {2, StringLength[#1] - 1}] &[ToString[lst]]
>
> eval = Nearest[xlis, 0.32];
> xlis
> elem = dropOuterBraces[eval]
> MemberQ[xlis, 0.545392]
> MemberQ[xlis, 0.33]
> Position[xlis, 0.33]
> Position[xlis, elem]
>
> Please hint where I am wrong.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Gopinath Venkatesan
> Graduate Student
> University of Oklahoma
>