Get value with the lowest key value from Map[Int, String]

Question

Say I have a map: Map[Int, String]. How would I get the value [String] with the lowest key [Int]. I've been trying to implement this functionally, but just can't figure out how to do this.

Answer 1

The following code will get you a value with a lowest key (ignoring some corner cases).

def lowestKeyMember[A](m: Map[Int,A]): A = m(m.keys.min)

This will break ties arbitrarily and throw on an empty map. If you need to do this operation frequently and/or on large maps, you should look into SortedMap.