Find nearest smaller number

Question

I have a vector of numbers

f <- c(1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 12, 19, 27)

I want to compare the values in the vector to another number, and find the closest smaller value.

For example, if the input number is 18, then the closest, smaller value in the vector is 12 (position 6 in the vector). If the input is 19, then the result should be the value 19, i.e. the index 7.

Answer 1

I think this answer is pretty straightforward:

f <- c(1,3,6,8,10,12,19,27)
x <- 18

# find the value that is closest to x
maxless <- max(f[f <= x])
# find out which value that is
which(f == maxless)

Answer 2

If your vector f is always sorted, then you can do sum(f <= x)

f <- c(1,3,6,8,10,12,19,27)

x <- 18
sum(f <= x)
# [1] 6

x <- 19
sum(f <= x)
# [1] 7

Answer 3

Try this (not a perfect solution)

x<-c(1,3,6,8,10,12,19,27)
showIndex<-function(x,input){
 abs.diff<-abs(x-input)
 index.value<-unique(ifelse(abs.diff==0,which.min(abs.diff),which.min(abs.diff)-1))
return(index.value)
 }
 showIndex(x,12)
    [1] 6
showIndex(x,19)
[1] 7

Answer 4

You could try:

x <- 18
f <- c(1,3,6,8,10,12,19,27)

ifelse(x %in% f, which(f %in% x), which.min(abs(f - x)) - 1)

That way if x is not in f, it will return the nearest previous index. If x is in f, it will return x index.