How to write a function that finds the closest value in a list of integers?

Question

mylist = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10]
mynumber = 8

I want to find the number in the list closest to mynumber. How can I write a function that can do that?

I'm still a beginner, so how can I do it with only loops and if statments?

Answer 1

Considering you want closest minimum value . You can try min function also :

min(myList, key=lambda x:abs(x-myNumber))

Update:

You can also go with this:

mylist = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10]
mynumber = int(raw_input("enter num : "))

def closest(list, Number):
    temp = []
    for i in list:
        temp.append(abs(Number-i))

    return temp.index(min(temp))

a = closest(mylist, mynumber)
print "index is : ",a
print "Closet value is : ",mylist[a]

Answer 2

Iterate over the list and compare the current closest number

def takeClosest(myList, myNumber):
  closest = myList[0]
  for i in range(1, len(myList)):
    if abs(i - myNumber) < closest:
      closest = i
  return closest