Can the for loop be eliminated from this piece of

Question

I have a range of whole numbers that might or might not have some numbers missing. Is it possible to find the smallest missing number without using a loop structure? If there are no missing numbers, the function should return the maximum value of the range plus one.

This is how I solved it using a for loop:

$range = [0,1,2,3,4,6,7];

// sort just in case the range is not in order
asort($range);
$range = array_values($range);

$first = true;
for ($x = 0; $x < count($range); $x++)
{
    // don't check the first element
    if ( ! $first )
    {
        if ( $range[$x - 1] + 1 !== $range[$x])
        {
            echo $range[$x - 1] + 1;
            break;
        }
    }

    // if we're on the last element, there are no missing numbers
    if ($x + 1 === count($range))
    {
        echo $range[$x] + 1;
    }
    $first = false;
}

Ideally, I'd like to avoid looping completely, as the range can be massive. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Simple

$array1 = array(0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7);// array with actual number series
$array2 = array(0,1,2,4,6,7); // array with your custom number series
$missing = array_diff($array1,$array2);
sort($missing);
echo $missing[0]; 

Answer 2

$range = array(0,1,2,3,4,6,7);    
// sort just in case the range is not in order
asort($range);
$range = array_values($range);
$indexes = array_keys($range);
$diff = array_diff($indexes,$range);

echo $diff[0]; // >> will print: 5 
// if $diff is an empty array - you can print 
// the "maximum value of the range plus one": $range[count($range)-1]+1

Answer 3

I honestly don't get why you wouldn't want to use a loop. There's nothing wrong with loops. They're fast, and you simply can't do without them. However, in your case, there is a way to avoid having to write your own loops, using PHP core functions. They do loop over the array, though, but you simply can't avoid that.
Anyway, I gather what you're after, can easily be written in 3 lines:

function highestPlus(array $in)
{
    $compare = range(min($in), max($in));
    $diff = array_diff($compare, $in);
    return empty($diff) ? max($in) +1 : $diff[0];
}

Tested with:

echo highestPlus(range(0,11));//echoes 12
$arr = array(9,3,4,1,2,5);
echo highestPlus($arr);//echoes 6

And now, to shamelessly steal Pé de Leão's answer (but "augment" it to do exactly what you want):

function highestPlus(array $range)
{//an unreadable one-liner... horrid, so don't, but know that you can...
     return min(array_diff(range(0, max($range)+1), $range)) ?: max($range) +1;
}

How it works:

$compare = range(min($in), max($in));//range(lowest value in array, highest value in array)
$diff = array_diff($compare, $in);//get all values present in $compare, that aren't in $in
return empty($diff) ? max($in) +1 : $diff[0];
//-------------------------------------------------
// read as:
if (empty($diff))
{//every number in min-max range was found in $in, return highest value +1
    return max($in) + 1;
}
//there were numbers in min-max range, not present in $in, return first missing number:
return $diff[0];

That's it, really.
Of course, if the supplied array might contain null or falsy values, or even strings, and duplicate values, it might be useful to "clean" the input a bit:

function highestPlus(array $in)
{
    $clean = array_filter(
        $in,
        'is_numeric'//or even is_int
    );
    $compare = range(min($clean), max($clean));
    $diff = array_diff($compare, $clean);//duplicates aren't an issue here
    return empty($diff) ? max($clean) + 1; $diff[0];
}

Useful links:

• The array_diff man page
• The max and min functions
• Good Ol' range, of course...
• The array_filter function
• The array_map function might be worth a look
• Just as array_sum might be

Answer 4

you can use array_diff() like this

<?php
        $range = array("0","1","2","3","4","6","7","9");
        asort($range);

    $len=count($range);
    if($range[$len-1]==$len-1){
      $r=$range[$len-1];
   }
    else{
    $ref= range(0,$len-1);
    $result = array_diff($ref,$range);
    $r=implode($result);
}
echo $r;

?>