Find nearest value in numpy array

Question

Is there a numpy-thonic way, e.g. function, to find the nearest value in an array?

Example:

np.find_nearest( array, value )

Answer 1

Here's an extension to find the nearest vector in an array of vectors.

import numpy as np

def find_nearest_vector(array, value):
  idx = np.array([np.linalg.norm(x+y) for (x,y) in array-value]).argmin()
  return array[idx]

A = np.random.random((10,2))*100
""" A = array([[ 34.19762933,  43.14534123],
   [ 48.79558706,  47.79243283],
   [ 38.42774411,  84.87155478],
   [ 63.64371943,  50.7722317 ],
   [ 73.56362857,  27.87895698],
   [ 96.67790593,  77.76150486],
   [ 68.86202147,  21.38735169],
   [  5.21796467,  59.17051276],
   [ 82.92389467,  99.90387851],
   [  6.76626539,  30.50661753]])"""
pt = [6, 30]  
print find_nearest_vector(A,pt)
# array([  6.76626539,  30.50661753])

Answer 2

Here is a version with scipy for @Ari Onasafari, answer "to find the nearest vector in an array of vectors"

In [1]: from scipy import spatial

In [2]: import numpy as np

In [3]: A = np.random.random((10,2))*100

In [4]: A
Out[4]:
array([[ 68.83402637,  38.07632221],
       [ 76.84704074,  24.9395109 ],
       [ 16.26715795,  98.52763827],
       [ 70.99411985,  67.31740151],
       [ 71.72452181,  24.13516764],
       [ 17.22707611,  20.65425362],
       [ 43.85122458,  21.50624882],
       [ 76.71987125,  44.95031274],
       [ 63.77341073,  78.87417774],
       [  8.45828909,  30.18426696]])

In [5]: pt = [6, 30]  # <-- the point to find

In [6]: A[spatial.KDTree(A).query(pt)[1]] # <-- the nearest point 
Out[6]: array([  8.45828909,  30.18426696])

#how it works!
In [7]: distance,index = spatial.KDTree(A).query(pt)

In [8]: distance # <-- The distances to the nearest neighbors
Out[8]: 2.4651855048258393

In [9]: index # <-- The locations of the neighbors
Out[9]: 9

#then 
In [10]: A[index]
Out[10]: array([  8.45828909,  30.18426696])

Answer 3

Here's a version that will handle a non-scalar "values" array:

import numpy as np

def find_nearest(array, values):
    indices = np.abs(np.subtract.outer(array, values)).argmin(0)
    return array[indices]

Or a version that returns a numeric type (e.g. int, float) if the input is scalar:

def find_nearest(array, values):
    values = np.atleast_1d(values)
    indices = np.abs(np.subtract.outer(array, values)).argmin(0)
    out = array[indices]
    return out if len(out) > 1 else out[0]

Answer 4

For large arrays, the (excellent) answer given by @Demitri is far faster than the answer currently marked as best. I've adapted his exact algorithm in the following two ways:

1. The function below works whether or not the input array is sorted.

2. The function below returns the index of the input array corresponding to the closest value, which is somewhat more general.

Note that the function below also handles a specific edge case that would lead to a bug in the original function written by @Demitri. Otherwise, my algorithm is identical to his.

def find_idx_nearest_val(array, value):
    idx_sorted = np.argsort(array)
    sorted_array = np.array(array[idx_sorted])
    idx = np.searchsorted(sorted_array, value, side="left")
    if idx >= len(array):
        idx_nearest = idx_sorted[len(array)-1]
    elif idx == 0:
        idx_nearest = idx_sorted[0]
    else:
        if abs(value - sorted_array[idx-1]) < abs(value - sorted_array[idx]):
            idx_nearest = idx_sorted[idx-1]
        else:
            idx_nearest = idx_sorted[idx]
    return idx_nearest

Answer 5

This is a vectorized version of unutbu's answer:

def find_nearest(array, values):
    array = np.asarray(array)

    # the last dim must be 1 to broadcast in (array - values) below.
    values = np.expand_dims(values, axis=-1) 

    indices = np.abs(array - values).argmin(axis=-1)

    return array[indices]


image = plt.imread('example_3_band_image.jpg')

print(image.shape) # should be (nrows, ncols, 3)

quantiles = np.linspace(0, 255, num=2 ** 2, dtype=np.uint8)

quantiled_image = find_nearest(quantiles, image)

print(quantiled_image.shape) # should be (nrows, ncols, 3)

Answer 6

IF your array is sorted and is very large, this is a much faster solution:

def find_nearest(array,value):
    idx = np.searchsorted(array, value, side="left")
    if idx > 0 and (idx == len(array) or math.fabs(value - array[idx-1]) < math.fabs(value - array[idx])):
        return array[idx-1]
    else:
        return array[idx]

This scales to very large arrays. You can easily modify the above to sort in the method if you can't assume that the array is already sorted. It’s overkill for small arrays, but once they get large this is much faster.