Compare JavaScript Array of Objects to Get Min / Max

Question

The reduce is good for stuff like this: to perform aggregate operations (like min, max, avg, etc.) on an array of objects, and return a single result:

myArray.reduce(function(prev, curr) {
    return prev.Cost < curr.Cost ? prev : curr;
});

...or you can define that inner function with ES6 function syntax:

(prev, curr) => prev.Cost < curr.Cost ? prev : curr

If you want to be cute you can attach this to array:

Array.prototype.hasMin = function(attrib) {
    return (this.length && this.reduce(function(prev, curr){ 
        return prev[attrib] < curr[attrib] ? prev : curr; 
    })) || null;
 }

Now you can just say:

myArray.hasMin('ID')  // result:  {"ID": 1, "Cost": 200}
myArray.hasMin('Cost')    // result: {"ID": 3, "Cost": 50}
myEmptyArray.hasMin('ID')   // result: null

Please note that if you intend to use this, it doesn't have full checks for every situation. If you pass in an array of primitive types, it will fail. If you check for a property that doesn't exist, or if not all the objects contain that property, you will get the last element. This version is a little more bulky, but has those checks:

Array.prototype.hasMin = function(attrib) {
    const checker = (o, i) => typeof(o) === 'object' && o[i]
    return (this.length && this.reduce(function(prev, curr){
        const prevOk = checker(prev, attrib);
        const currOk = checker(curr, attrib);
        if (!prevOk && !currOk) return {};
        if (!prevOk) return curr;
        if (!currOk) return prev;
        return prev[attrib] < curr[attrib] ? prev : curr; 
    })) || null;
 }

One way is to loop through all elements and compare it to the highest/lowest value.

(Creating an array, invoking array methods is overkill for this simple operation).

 // There's no real number bigger than plus Infinity
var lowest = Number.POSITIVE_INFINITY;
var highest = Number.NEGATIVE_INFINITY;
var tmp;
for (var i=myArray.length-1; i>=0; i--) {
    tmp = myArray[i].Cost;
    if (tmp < lowest) lowest = tmp;
    if (tmp > highest) highest = tmp;
}
console.log(highest, lowest);

Use sort, if you don't care about the array being modified.

myArray.sort(function (a, b) {
    return a.Cost - b.Cost
})

var min = myArray[0],
    max = myArray[myArray.length - 1]

Use Math functions and pluck out the values you want with map.

Here is the jsbin:

https://jsbin.com/necosu/1/edit?js,console

var myArray = [{
    "ID": 1,
    "Cost": 200
  }, {
    "ID": 2,
    "Cost": 1000
  }, {
    "ID": 3,
    "Cost": 50
  }, {
    "ID": 4,
    "Cost": 500
  }],

  min = Math.min.apply(null, myArray.map(function(item) {
    return item.Cost;
  })),
  max = Math.max.apply(null, myArray.map(function(item) {
    return item.Cost;
  }));

console.log('min', min);//50
console.log('max', max);//1000

UPDATE:

If you want to use ES6:

var min = Math.min.apply(null, myArray.map(item => item.Cost)),
    max = Math.max.apply(null, myArray.map(item => item.Cost));

Using Math.min and Math.max:

var myArray = [
    { id: 1, cost: 200},
    { id: 2, cost: 1000},
    { id: 3, cost: 50},
    { id: 4, cost: 500}
]


var min = Math.min(...myArray.map(item => item.cost));
var max = Math.max(...myArray.map(item => item.cost));

console.log("min: " + min);
console.log("max: " + max);

I think Rob W's answer is really the right one (+1), but just for fun: if you wanted to be "clever", you could do something like this:

var myArray = 
[
    {"ID": 1, "Cost": 200},
    {"ID": 2, "Cost": 1000},
    {"ID": 3, "Cost": 50},
    {"ID": 4, "Cost": 500}
]

function finder(cmp, arr, attr) {
    var val = arr[0][attr];
    for(var i=1;i<arr.length;i++) {
        val = cmp(val, arr[i][attr])
    }
    return val;
}

alert(finder(Math.max, myArray, "Cost"));
alert(finder(Math.min, myArray, "Cost"));

or if you had a deeply nested structure, you could get a little more functional and do the following:

var myArray = 
[
    {"ID": 1, "Cost": { "Wholesale":200, Retail: 250 }},
    {"ID": 2, "Cost": { "Wholesale":1000, Retail: 1010 }},
    {"ID": 3, "Cost": { "Wholesale":50, Retail: 300 }},
    {"ID": 4, "Cost": { "Wholesale":500, Retail: 1050 }}
]

function finder(cmp, arr, getter) {
    var val = getter(arr[0]);
    for(var i=1;i<arr.length;i++) {
        val = cmp(val, getter(arr[i]))
    }
    return val;
}

alert(finder(Math.max, myArray, function(x) { return x.Cost.Wholesale; }));
alert(finder(Math.min, myArray, function(x) { return x.Cost.Retail; }));

These could easily be curried into more useful/specific forms.