Find the min/max element of an Array in JavaScript

Question

How can I easily obtain the min or max element of a JavaScript Array?

Example Psuedocode:

let array = [100, 0, 50]

array.min() //=> 0
array.max() //=> 100

Answer 1

I am surprised not one mentiond the reduce function.

var arr = [1, 10, 5, 11, 2]

var b = arr.reduce(function(previous,current){ 
                      return previous > current ? previous:current
                   });

b => 11
arr => [1, 10, 5, 11, 2]

Answer 2

Simple stuff, really.

var arr = [10,20,30,40];
arr.max = function() { return  Math.max.apply(Math, this); }; //attach max funct
arr.min = function() { return  Math.min.apply(Math, this); }; //attach min funct

alert("min: " + arr.min() + " max: " + arr.max());

Answer 3

I thought I'd share my simple and easy to understand solution.

For the min:

var arr = [3, 4, 12, 1, 0, 5];
var min = arr[0];
for (var k = 1; k < arr.length; k++) {
  if (arr[k] < min) {
    min = arr[k];
  }
}
console.log("Min is: " + min);

And for the max:

var arr = [3, 4, 12, 1, 0, 5];
var max = arr[0];
for (var k = 1; k < arr.length; k++) {
  if (arr[k] > max) {
    max = arr[k];
  }
}
console.log("Max is: " + max);

Answer 4

Others have already given some solutions in which they augment Array.prototype. All I want in this answer is to clarify whether it should be Math.min.apply( Math, array ) or Math.min.apply( null, array ). So what context should be used, Math or null?

When passing null as a context to apply, then the context will default to the global object (the window object in the case of browsers). Passing the Math object as the context would be the correct solution, but it won't hurt passing null either. Here's an example when null might cause trouble, when decorating the Math.max function:

// decorate Math.max
(function (oldMax) {
    Math.max = function () {
        this.foo(); // call Math.foo, or at least that's what we want

        return oldMax.apply(this, arguments);
    };
})(Math.max);

Math.foo = function () {
    print("foo");
};

Array.prototype.max = function() {
  return Math.max.apply(null, this); // <-- passing null as the context
};

var max = [1, 2, 3].max();

print(max);

The above will throw an exception because this.foo will be evaluated as window.foo, which is undefined. If we replace null with Math, things will work as expected and the string "foo" will be printed to the screen (I tested this using Mozilla Rhino).

You can pretty much assume that nobody has decorated Math.max so, passing null will work without problems.

Answer 5

One more way to do it:

var arrayMax = Function.prototype.apply.bind(Math.max, null);

Usage:

var max = arrayMax([2, 5, 1]);

Answer 6

Two ways are shorter and easy:

let arr = [2, 6, 1, 0]

// Way 1:
let max = Math.max.apply(null, arr)

//Way 2:
let max = arr.reduce(function(a, b) {
    return Math.max(a, b);
});