forums.silverfrost.com

Wilfried Linder · Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2014 8:18 am Post subject: minloc function

I'd like to find the position of the smallest element in a vector, and I tried this:

Kenneth_Smith · Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2014 11:00 am Post subject:

I've seen this one before, i must be dimensioned as a vector with one element.

Wilfried Linder · Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2014 11:24 am Post subject:

Ken, thanks a lot, now it works!

Wilfried

davidb · Joined: 17 Jul 2009 Posts: 560 Location: UK

Yes. In the original code, the result is an array of rank 1.

Alternatively, you can use the DIM argument to get a scalar result. So the original code becomes.

Wilfried Linder · Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2014 8:21 am Post subject:

Thanks again!

I was a bit confused because the related functions minval and maxval don't need such constructions but simply run with j = minval(r) or j = maxval(r).

Have a nice day
Wilfried

JohnCampbell · Joined: 16 Feb 2006 Posts: 2615 Location: Sydney

It puzzles me also, although if the array being scanned is of rank > 1 then the result is an array of the same rank and of size = rank.
Extrapolating this for a scanned array of rank 1 is a bit of an anomaly.

You'd think it would have been easier in this case to allow either
I = minloc(array) or I(1) = minloc(array)
to be acceptable.

this might be explained as
array = scalar ! is acceptable but
scalar = array ! is not ok

Just another tick in the box of avoiding this intrinsic function, which looks inefficient, especially for large arrays.

John