Problem Explanation:
Given an unsorted array, the output should be the minimum difference between the elements and the elements itself.
Example:
{6, 10, 5, 42, 43, 1, 2}output:
The minimum difference between is 1 the elements are 1 and 2.This can be solved in 2 ways:
Solution 1:
Take a “diff” variable that will hold the least difference and iterate through the array by taking 2 for loops, outer loop and inner loop.
Note:
abs() is used in this program. It will the absolute value of an integer. Absolute value means a +ve value of that integer.
As we are using 2 for loops the efficiency is O(n^2).
Below is the solution in C:
#include<stdio.h>
#include <limits.h> // for INT_MAX
#include <stdlib.h> // for abs()
void getLeastDifference(int arr[], int lenght)
{
int diff = INT_MAX; //. we set the initial difference as max.
int outer_loop = 0;
int inner_loop = 0;
int element_1 = 0;
int element_2 = 0;
for ( outer_loop = 0; outer_loop < lenght-1 ; ++outer_loop)
{
for ( inner_loop = outer_loop +1 ; inner_loop < lenght; ++inner_loop)
{
if( abs(arr[outer_loop] - arr[inner_loop]) < diff)
{
diff = abs (arr[outer_loop] - arr[inner_loop]);
element_1 = arr[outer_loop];
element_2 = arr[inner_loop];
}
}
}
printf("The least difference is %d between the elements %d and %d \n", diff, element_1, element_2 );
}
int main(int argc, char const *argv[])
{
int arr [100] = {6, 10, 5, 42, 43, 1, 2};
int length = 7;
getLeastDifference(arr, length);
return 0;
}Output:
The least difference is 1 between the elements 6 and 5Solution 2:
The first step is to sort the given array.
Then check the difference between the elements and update them.
The efficiency will be O(n log n)
Solution in C
#include<stdio.h>
#include <limits.h> // for INT_MAX
void print_array(int array[], int length)
{
int index = 0;
printf("The sorted array is \n");
for(index = 0 ; index < length ; index++)
{
printf("%d\n",array[index] );
}
}
void swap (int *num_1, int *num_2)
{
int temp = *num_1;
*num_1 = *num_2;
*num_2 = temp;
}
void bubble_sort (int array[], int length)
{
int outer_loop = 0;
int inner_loop = 0;
for(outer_loop = 0; outer_loop < length - 1; outer_loop ++)
{
for(inner_loop = 0; inner_loop < length - outer_loop - 1 ; inner_loop ++)
{
if(array [inner_loop] > array[inner_loop+1])
{
swap(&array[inner_loop], &array [inner_loop+1]);
}
}
}
}
void getLeastDifference(int arr[], int lenght)
{
int diff = INT_MAX;
int itr = 0;
int element_1 = 0;
int element_2 = 0;
for ( itr = 0; itr < lenght - 1; itr++)
{
if (arr[itr+1] - arr[itr] < diff)
{
diff = arr[itr+1] - arr[itr];
element_1 = arr[itr+1];
element_2 = arr[itr];
}
}
printf("The least difference is %d between the elements %d and %d \n", diff, element_1, element_2 );
}
int main()
{
int arr [100] = {6, 10, 5, 42, 43, 1, 2};
int length = 7;
bubble_sort(arr, length);
getLeastDifference(arr, length);
}Output:
The least difference is 1 between the elements 2 and 1