programming-univbasics-4-finding-the-minimum-value-in-an-array-lab-chi01-seng-ft-091420's Introduction

Using Loops and Arrays to Find Data

Learning Goals

Work with arrays and loops to extract specific values
Use loops to compare values in an array

Introduction

In the last lab, you were tasked with finding the maximum value in an array. For this last lab on working with arrays, your task is to do the opposite - find the minimum value in an array. This time, it'll be entirely up to you to solve this using what you've learned and the test output as guidance.

Instructions

For this lab's tests, assume all arrays are sets of positive integers. The find_min_value method and required parameter are provided for you in lib/find_the_minimum.rb. Write the implementation for this method, using learn to track your progress.

Finding a Minimum Value

The find_min_value(array) takes in an array of integers. This method should return whichever integer in the array has the lowest value.

find_min_value([10,5,3,7,19,1,3,10])

We should expect to receive 1 in return.

Conclusion

Learning to master using a collection to answer a question is usually accomplished by looping through a collection data type (either an Array or Hash). You might notice some similar coding between this solution and the last two labs. That suggests that there might be an awesome way to DRY out this code (and you'll see it very soon!).

While coding these implementations might feel repetitive after a while, they are worthwhile to practice. They ensure that you can reason clearly about how to use collection data to answer questions and they're commonly used in interviews. From there, it is only a few small conceptual steps to highly complex algorithms.