find closest element in a list python code example

Example 1: select closest number in array python

import numpy as np
def find_nearest(array, value):
    array = np.asarray(array)
    idx = (np.abs(array - value)).argmin()
    return array[idx]

array = np.random.random(10)
print(array)
# [ 0.21069679  0.61290182  0.63425412  0.84635244  0.91599191  0.00213826
#   0.17104965  0.56874386  0.57319379  0.28719469]

value = 0.5

print(find_nearest(array, value))
# 0.568743859261

Example 2: how to get index of closest value in list python

min(range(len(a)), key=lambda i: abs(a[i]-11.5))