Fastest way to determine the non-zero minimum

Question

Having an array of for instance 4 integers how can one determine it's non-zero minimum - in the fastest way ?

Answer 1

Unless you keep the minimum value as elements are added to the array, or you keep the array in a sorted order - I see no other solution but to iterate every member to determine the minimum value.

There is no 'fast' way of testing each member.

Generally I suggest do not optimize something unless it actually proves to be slow. The old rule of your program spends 90% of its time in 10% of the code generally holds true. So does the rules that programmers are 99.99% likely to optimize code not in that 10%.

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