Find the min max element of an array in JavaScript

Question

How can I easily obtain the min or max element of a JavaScript array  Example pseudocode  let array    100  0  50   array min       gt  0 array max       gt  100

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let array    267  306  108  let longest   Math max    array

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For an array containing objects instead of numbers  arr         name   a   value  5        name   b   value  3        name   c   value  4      You can use reduce to get the element with the smallest value  min  arr reduce  a  b    gt  a value  lt  b value   a   b       name   b   value  3    or the largest value  max  arr reduce  a  b    gt  a value  gt  b value   a   b       name   a   value  5

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To prevent  max  and  min  to be listed in a  for     in  loop   Object defineProperty Array prototype   max         enumerable  false      configurable  false      writable  false          value  function             return Math max apply null  this             Object defineProperty Array prototype   min         enumerable  false      configurable  false      writable  false          value  function             return Math min apply null  this               Usage   var x    10 23 44 21 5   x max      44 x min      5

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linear  almost-purely-functional-approach  var min  0  29  25  map  function max   max -Infinity  return function e   return max Math max max  e         0      More examples    Finding out min value  function getMin arr        return  ar     0  29  25            map  function max   max -Infinity  return function e   return max Math max max  e         0       or using Array map method with variable closuring  function getMin arrObjs        return  arrObjs      val  0    val  29    val  25             map  function max   max -Infinity  return function e   return max  max val gt e val max e         0       Finding out max value  function getMax arr        return  ar     0  29  25            map  function v   v Infinity  return function e   return v Math min v  e         0       for array of objects  function getMax arrObjs        return  arrObjs      val  0    val  29    val  25             map  function v   v -Infinity  return function e   return v  v val lt e val v e         0

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For big arrays   107 elements   Math min and Math max procuces a RangeError  Maximum call stack size exceeded  in node js   For big arrays  a quick  amp  dirty solution is   Array prototype min   function         var r   this 0       this forEach function v i a  if  v lt r  r v         return r

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I managed to solve my problem this way               var strDiv     4 8 5 1  var arrayDivs     strDiv split      var str        for  i 0 i lt arrayDivs length i          if  i lt arrayDivs length-1              str   str   eval  arrayDivs   i                      else if  i  arrayDivs length-1              str   str   eval  arrayDivs   i                str    Math max     str            var numMax   eval str     I hope I have helped   Best regards

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For big arrays   107 elements   Math min and Math max both produces the following error in Node js       RangeError  Maximum call stack size exceeded   A more robust solution is to not add every element to the call stack  but to instead pass an array   function arrayMin arr      return arr reduce function  p  v        return   p  lt  v   p   v             function arrayMax arr      return arr reduce function  p  v        return   p  gt  v   p   v              If you are concerned about speed  the following code is  3 times faster then Math max apply is on my computer  See http   jsperf com min-and-max-in-array 2   function arrayMin arr      var len   arr length  min   Infinity    while  len--        if  arr len   lt  min          min   arr len               return min      function arrayMax arr      var len   arr length  max   -Infinity    while  len--        if  arr len   gt  max          max   arr len               return max       If your arrays contains strings instead of numbers  you also need to coerce them into numbers  The below code does that  but it slows the code down  10 times on my machine  See http   jsperf com min-and-max-in-array 3   function arrayMin arr      var len   arr length  min   Infinity    while  len--        if  Number arr len    lt  min          min   Number arr len                return min      function arrayMax arr      var len   arr length  max   -Infinity    while  len--        if  Number arr len    gt  max          max   Number arr len                return max

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Aside using the math function max and min  another function to use is the built in function of sort    here we go const nums    12  67  58  30  sort  x  y    gt   x -  y  let min val   nums 0  let max val   nums nums length -1

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Simple stuff  really    var arr    10 20 30 40   arr max   function     return  Math max apply Math  this        attach max funct arr min   function     return  Math min apply Math  this        attach min funct  alert  min      arr min       max      arr max

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I am surprised not one mentiond the reduce function   var arr    1  10  5  11  2   var b   arr reduce function previous current                          return previous  gt  current   previous current                         b   gt  11 arr   gt   1  10  5  11  2

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Using Math max   or Math min    Math max 10  20         20 Math min -10  -20      -20   The following function uses Function prototype apply   to find the maximum element in a numeric array  getMaxOfArray  1  2  3   is equivalent to Math max 1  2  3   but you can use getMaxOfArray   on programmatically constructed arrays of any size   function getMaxOfArray numArray      return Math max apply null  numArray       Or with the new spread operator  getting the maximum of an array becomes a lot easier   var arr    1  2  3   var max   Math max    arr      3 var min   Math min    arr      1

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The following code works for me     var valueList    10 4 17 9 3   var maxValue   valueList reduce function a  b    return Math max a  b       var minValue   valueList reduce function a  b    return Math min a  b

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One more way to do it   var arrayMax   Function prototype apply bind Math max  null     Usage     var max   arrayMax  2  5  1

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You do it by extending the Array type   Array max   function  array        return Math max apply  Math  array       Array min   function  array        return Math min apply  Math  array          Boosted from here  by John Resig

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If you are using prototype js framework  then this code will work ok   arr min    arr max      Documented here  Javascript prototype framework for max

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Here is one more example  Calculate the Max Min value from an array with lodash    x000D   x000D  let array    100  0  50   x000D  var func     over Math max  Math min   x000D  var  max  min    func    array   x000D       gt   100  0  x000D  console log max   x000D  console log min   x000D   lt script src  https   cdnjs cloudflare com ajax libs lodash js 4 17 11 lodash js  gt  lt  script gt  x000D   x000D   x000D

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If you use the library sugar js  you can write arr min   and arr max   as you suggest  You can also get min and max values from non-numeric arrays   min  map   all   false   Returns the element in the array with the lowest value  map may be a function mapping the value to be checked or a string acting as a shortcut  If all is true  will return all min values in an array  max  map   all   false   Returns the element in the array with the greatest value  map may be a function mapping the value to be checked or a string acting as a shortcut  If all is true  will return all max values in an array   Examples   1 2 3  min      1   fee   fo   fum   min  length       quot fo quot    fee   fo   fum   min  length   true       quot fo quot     fee   fo   fum   min function n    return n length          quot fo quot    a 3 a 2   min function n    return n  a            quot a quot  2    fee   fo   fum   max  length   true       quot fee quot   quot fum quot    Libraries like Lo-Dash and underscore js also provide similar powerful min and max functions  Example from Lo-Dash    max  4  2  8  6      8 var characters          name    barney    age   36         name    fred      age   40        max characters  function chr    return chr age           name    fred    age   40

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let arr  20 8 29 76 7 21 9  Math max apply  Math  arr       76

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How about augmenting the built-in Array object to use Math max Math min instead   Array prototype max   function       return Math max apply null  this       Array prototype min   function       return Math min apply null  this        Here is a JSFiddle   Augmenting the built-ins can cause collisions with other libraries  some see   so you may be more comfortable with just apply ing Math xxx   to your array directly   var min   Math min apply null  arr       max   Math max apply null  arr       Alternately  assuming your browser supports ECMAScript 6  you can use the spread operator which functions similarly to the apply method   var min   Math min     arr        max   Math max     arr

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You can use lodash s methods     max  4  2  8  6    returns   gt  8   https   lodash com docs 4 17 15 max    min  4  2  8  6    returns   gt  2   https   lodash com docs 4 17 15 min

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create a simple object   var myArray   new Array     myArray    10 12 14 100    var getMaxHeight          hight   function  array    return Math max apply  Math  array       getMaxHeight hight myArray

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well I would like to do this in the below way const findMaxAndMin    arr    gt      if  arr length  lt   0  return -1    let min   arr 0     let max   arr 0     arr map  n    gt        n  gt  max    max   n    false      n  lt  min    min   n    false          return  min  max

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Here s a plain vanilla JS approach   function getMinArrayVal seq       var minVal   seq 0       for var i   0  i lt seq length-1  i             if minVal  lt  seq i 1            continue            else           minVal   seq i 1                       return minVal

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tl dr     For regular arrays  var max   Math max    arrayOfNumbers       For arrays with tens of thousands of items  let max   testArray 0   for  let i   1  i  lt  testArrayLength    i      if  testArray i   gt  max        max   testArray i           MDN solution  The official MDN docs on Math max   already covers this issue      The following function uses Function prototype apply   to find the maximum element in a numeric array  getMaxOfArray  1  2  3   is equivalent to Math max 1  2  3   but you can use getMaxOfArray   on programmatically constructed arrays of any size   function getMaxOfArray numArray        return Math max apply null  numArray           Or with the new spread operator  getting the maximum of an array becomes a lot easier   var arr    1  2  3   var max   Math max    arr      Maximum size of an array  According to MDN the apply and spread solutions had a limitation of 65536 that came from the limit of the maximum number of arguments      But beware  in using apply this way  you run the risk of exceeding the JavaScript engine s argument length limit  The consequences of applying a function with too many arguments  think more than tens of thousands of arguments  vary across engines  JavaScriptCore has hard-coded argument limit of 65536   because the limit  indeed even the nature of any excessively-large-stack behavior  is unspecified  Some engines will throw an exception  More perniciously  others will arbitrarily limit the number of arguments actually passed to the applied function  To illustrate this latter case  if such an engine had a limit of four arguments  actual limits are of course significantly higher   it would be as if the arguments 5  6  2  3 had been passed to apply in the examples above  rather than the full array    They even provide a hybrid solution which doesn t really have good performance compared to other solutions  See performance test below for more   In 2019 the actual limit is the maximum size of the call stack  For modern Chromium based desktop browsers this means that when it comes to finding min max with apply or spread  practically the maximum size for numbers only arrays is  120000  Above this  there will be a stack overflow and the following error will be thrown      RangeError  Maximum call stack size exceeded   With the script below  based on this blog post   by catching that error you can calculate the limit for your specific environment   Warning  Running this script takes time and depending on the performance of your system it might slow or crash your browser system    x000D   x000D  let testArray   Array from  length  10000        gt  Math floor Math random     2000000    x000D  for  i   10000  i  lt  1000000    i    x000D    testArray push Math floor Math random     2000000    x000D    try   x000D      Math max apply null  testArray   x000D      catch  e    x000D      console log i   x000D      break  x000D      x000D    x000D   x000D   x000D    Performance on large arrays  Based on the test in EscapeNetscape s comment I created some benchmarks that tests 5 different methods on a random number only array with 100000 items   In 2019  the results show that the standard loop  which BTW doesn t have the size limitation  is the fastest everywhere  apply and spread comes closely after it  then much later MDN s hybrid solution then reduce as the slowest   Almost all tests gave the same results  except for one where spread somewhy ended up being the slowest   If you step up your array to have 1 million items  things start to break and you are left with the standard loop as a fast solution and reduce as a slower    JSPerf benchmark    JSBen benchmark    JSBench me benchmark    Benchmark source code   x000D   x000D  var testArrayLength   100000 x000D  var testArray   Array from  length  testArrayLength        gt  Math floor Math random     2000000    x000D   x000D     ES6 spread x000D  Math min    testArray   x000D  Math max    testArray   x000D   x000D     reduce x000D  testArray reduce function a  b    x000D    return Math max a  b   x000D      x000D  testArray reduce function a  b    x000D    return Math min a  b   x000D      x000D   x000D     apply x000D  Math min apply Math  testArray   x000D  Math max apply Math  testArray   x000D   x000D     standard loop x000D  let max   testArray 0   x000D  for  let i   1  i  lt  testArrayLength    i    x000D    if  testArray i   gt  max    x000D      max   testArray i   x000D      x000D    x000D   x000D  let min   testArray 0   x000D  for  let i   1  i  lt  testArrayLength    i    x000D    if  testArray i   lt  min    x000D      min   testArray i   x000D      x000D    x000D   x000D     MDN hibrid soltuion x000D     Source  https   developer mozilla org en-US docs Web JavaScript Reference Global Objects Function apply Using apply and built-in functions x000D  function minOfArray arr    x000D    var min   Infinity  x000D    var QUANTUM   32768  x000D   x000D    for  var i   0  len   arr length  i  lt  len  i    QUANTUM    x000D      var submin   Math min apply null  arr slice i  Math min i   QUANTUM  len     x000D      min   Math min submin  min   x000D      x000D   x000D    return min  x000D    x000D   x000D  minOfArray testArray   x000D   x000D  function maxOfArray arr    x000D    var max   -Infinity  x000D    var QUANTUM   32768  x000D   x000D    for  var i   0  len   arr length  i  lt  len  i    QUANTUM    x000D      var submax   Math max apply null  arr slice i  Math max i   QUANTUM  len     x000D      max   Math max submax  max   x000D      x000D   x000D    return max  x000D    x000D   x000D  maxOfArray testArray   x000D   x000D   x000D

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Try  let max  a  gt  a reduce  m x   gt  m gt x   m x   let min  a  gt  a reduce  m x   gt  m lt x   m x      x000D   x000D  let max  a  gt  a reduce  m x   gt  m gt x   m x   x000D  let min  a  gt  a reduce  m x   gt  m lt x   m x   x000D   x000D     TEST - pixel buffer x000D  let arr   Array 200 800 4  fill 0    x000D  arr forEach  x i   gt  arr i  100-i 101    x000D   x000D  console log  Max   max arr    x000D  console log  Min   min arr   x000D   x000D   x000D    For Math min max   apply  we get error      Maximum call stack size exceeded  Chrome 74 0 3729 131     x000D   x000D     TEST - pixel buffer x000D  let arr   Array 200 800 4  fill 0    x000D  arr forEach  x i   gt  arr i  100-i 101    x000D   x000D     Exception  Maximum call stack size exceeded x000D   x000D  try   x000D    let max1  Math max    arr             x000D    catch e    console error  Math max     e message    x000D   x000D  try   x000D    let max2  Math max apply null  arr    x000D    catch e    console error  Math max apply     e message    x000D   x000D   x000D     same for min x000D   x000D   x000D

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After reading all the answers  I thought it would be good to write the soundest solution  which was not provided here  I have come across  If your value array might grow into the tens of thousands  use a hybrid strategy  apply your function to chunks of the array at a time   function minOfArray arr      var min   Infinity    var QUANTUM   32768     for  var i   0  len   arr length  i  lt  len  i    QUANTUM        var submin   Math min apply null                                   arr slice i  Math min i QUANTUM  len         min   Math min submin  min          return min     var min   minOfArray  5  6  2  3  7      Source  MDN

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Iterate through  keeping track as you go   var min   null  var max   null  for  var i   0  len   arr length  i  lt  len    i        var elem   arr i       if  min     null    min  gt  elem  min   elem      if  max     null    max  lt  elem  max   elem    alert   min       min      max       max      This will leave min max null if there are no elements in the array   Will set min and max in one pass if the array has any elements   You could also extend Array with a range method using the above to allow reuse and improve on readability   See a working fiddle at http   jsfiddle net 9C9fU   Array prototype range   function          var min   null          max   null          i  len       for  i   0  len   this length  i  lt  len    i                var elem   this i           if  min     null    min  gt  elem  min   elem          if  max     null    max  lt  elem  max   elem             return   min  min  max  max        Used as  var arr    3  9  22  -7  44  18  7  9  15    var range   arr range     console log range min   console log range max

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Two ways are shorter and easy   let arr    2  6  1  0    Way 1   let max   Math max apply null  arr    Way 2   let max   arr reduce function a  b        return Math max a  b

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This may suit your purposes   Array prototype min   function comparer         if  this length     0  return null      if  this length     1  return this 0        comparer    comparer    Math min        var v   this 0       for  var i   1  i  lt  this length  i              v   comparer this i   v                  return v     Array prototype max   function comparer         if  this length     0  return null      if  this length     1  return this 0        comparer    comparer    Math max        var v   this 0       for  var i   1  i  lt  this length  i              v   comparer this i   v                  return v

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ChaosPandion s solution works if you re using protoype  If not  consider this   Array max   function  array        return Math max apply  Math  array        Array min   function  array        return Math min apply  Math  array         The above will return NaN if an array value is not an integer so you should build some functionality to avoid that   Otherwise this will work

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For a concise  modern solution  one can perform a reduce operation over the array  keeping track of the current minimum and maximum values  so the array is only iterated over once  which is optimal   Destructuring assignment is used here for succinctness   x000D   x000D  let array    100  0  50   let  min  max    array reduce   prevMin prevMax   curr   gt      Math min prevMin  curr   Math max prevMax  curr     Infinity  -Infinity    console log  Min    min   console log  Max    max   x000D   x000D   x000D   To only find either the minimum or maximum  we can use perform a reduce operation in much the same way  but we only need to keep track of the previous optimal value  This method is better than using apply as it will not cause errors when the array is too large for the stack   x000D   x000D  const arr    -1  9  3  -6  35      Only find minimum const min   arr reduce  a b   gt Math min a b   Infinity   console log  Min    min    -6    Only find maximum const max   arr reduce  a b   gt Math max a b   -Infinity   console log  Max    max    35 x000D   x000D   x000D

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array sort  a  b    gt  b - a  0    Gives you the maximum value in an array of numbers  array sort  a  b    gt  a - b  0    Gives you the minimum value in an array of numbers   x000D   x000D  let array    0 20 45 85 41 5 7 85 90 111    let maximum   array sort  a  b    gt  b - a  0   let minimum   array sort  a  b    gt  a - b  0    console log minimum  maximum  x000D   x000D   x000D

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if you have complex object  you could use sort    such as  if I want get item which contains MAX MIN value of below objs   var objs     name  Apple  value 3    name  Love  value 32    name  Cheese  value 1    name  Pork  value 77    name  Xmas  value 99               I will do a sort   objs sort function a  b  return a value-b value      Then  objs 0  is the MIN  objs objs length-1  is the MAX

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You may not want to add methods to the Array prototype  which may conflict with other libraries    I ve seen a lot of examples use forEach which  I wouldn t recommend for large arrays due to its poor performance vs a for loop  https   coderwall com p kvzbpa don-t-use-array-foreach-use-for-instead   Also Math max Math   1 2 3    Always gives me NaN   function minArray a      var min a 0   for var i 0 j a length i lt j i    min a i  lt min a i  min     return min     function maxArray a      var max a 0   for var i 0 j a length i lt j i    max a i  gt max a i  max     return max     minArray  1 2 3       returns 1   If you have an array of objects the minArray   function example below will accept 2 parameters  the first is the array and the second is the key name for the object key value to compare  The function in this case would return the index of the array that has the smallest given key value   function minArray a  key      var min  i  j  index 0    if  key        min a 0        for i 0 j a length i lt j i    min a i  lt min a i  min       return min        min a 0  key     for i 0 j a length i lt j i         if a i  key  lt min          min   a i  key         index   i                return index     var a     fee  9    fee  2    fee  5     minArray a   fee       returns 1  as 1 is the proper array index for the 2nd array element

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minHeight   Math min apply    YourArray   minKey      getCertainKey YourArray minHeight   maxHeight   Math max apply    YourArray   maxKey      getCertainKey YourArray minHeight   function getCertainKey array certainValue      for var key in array         if  array key   certainValue           return key

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Below script worked for me in ndoejs    var numbers    1  2  3  4    console log  Value       Math max apply null  numbers        4

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A recursive solution to the problem   x000D   x000D  const findMinMax    arr  max  min  i    gt  arr length     i     x000D      min  x000D      max x000D        x000D    findMinMax  x000D      arr  x000D      arr i   gt  max   arr i    max  x000D      arr i   lt  min   arr i    min  x000D        i  x000D   x000D  const arr    5  34  2  1  6  7  9  3   x000D  const max   findMinMax arr  arr 0   arr 1   0  x000D  console log max   x000D   x000D   x000D

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let arr    2 5 3 5 6 7 1    let max   Math max    arr      7 let min   Math min    arr      1

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Insert the numbers seperated by a comma and click on the event you want to call ie Get the Max or min number    x000D   x000D          function maximumNumber     x000D          x000D              var numberValue   document myForm number value split       x000D              var numberArray       x000D       x000D              for  var i   0  len   numberValue length  i  lt  len  i    1    x000D       x000D                  numberArray push  numberValue i    x000D       x000D                  var largestNumber   numberArray reduce function  x  y    x000D                      return  x  gt  y    x   y  x000D                      x000D                x000D       x000D              document getElementById  numberOutput   value   largestNumber  x000D       x000D            x000D       x000D          function minimumNumber     x000D     x000D              var numberValue   document myForm number value split       x000D              var numberArray       x000D       x000D              for  var i   0  len   numberValue length  i  lt  len  i    1    x000D       x000D                  numberArray push  numberValue i    x000D       x000D                  var smallestNumber   numberArray reduce function  x  y    x000D                      return  x  lt  y    x   y  x000D                      x000D                x000D       x000D              document getElementById  numberOutput   value   smallestNumber  x000D       x000D            x000D       x000D       x000D              function restrictCharacters evt    x000D       x000D                  evt    evt    evt   window event  x000D                  var charCode    evt which    evt which   evt keyCode  x000D                  if    charCode  gt    48    amp  amp   charCode  lt    57        charCode     44      x000D                      return true  x000D                    x000D                  else   x000D                      return false  x000D                    x000D                x000D       x000D       lt div gt      x000D               lt form name  myForm  gt  x000D               lt table gt  x000D               lt tr gt  x000D                   lt td gt Insert Number lt  td gt  x000D                  x000D                   lt td gt  lt input type  text  name  number  id  number  onkeypress  return restrictCharacters event      gt  lt  td gt  x000D                   x000D                   lt td gt  lt input type  button  value  Maximum  onclick  maximumNumber       gt  lt  td gt  x000D                   x000D                   lt td gt  lt input type  button  value  Minimum  onclick  minimumNumber      gt  lt  td gt  x000D                   x000D                   lt td gt  lt input type  text  id  numberOutput  name  numberOutput    gt  lt  td gt  x000D       x000D               lt  tr gt  x000D               lt  table gt  x000D               lt  form gt  x000D           lt  div gt  x000D   x000D   x000D

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If you re paranoid like me about using Math max apply  which could cause errors when given large arrays according to MDN   try this   function arrayMax array      return array reduce function a  b        return Math max a  b            function arrayMin array      return array reduce function a  b        return Math min a  b             Or  in ES6   function arrayMax array      return array reduce  a  b    gt  Math max a  b       function arrayMin array      return array reduce  a  b    gt  Math min a  b        The anonymous functions are unfortunately necessary  instead of using Math max bind Math  because reduce doesn t just pass a and b to its function  but also i and a reference to the array itself  so we have to ensure we don t try to call max on those as well

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Here s one way to get the max value from an array of objects   Create a copy  with slice   then sort the copy in descending order and grab the first item   var myArray           ID   1   Cost   200         ID   2   Cost   1000         ID   3   Cost   50         ID   4   Cost   500     maxsort   myArray slice 0  sort function a  b    return b ID - a ID    0  ID

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I had the same problem  I needed to obtain the minimum and maximum values of an array and  to my surprise  there were no built-in functions for arrays  After reading a lot  I decided to test the  top 3  solutions myself    discrete solution  a FOR loop to check every element of the array against the current max and or min value  APPLY solution  sending the array to the Math max and or Math min internal functions using apply null array   REDUCE solution  recursing a check against every element of the array using reduce function     The test code was this   function GetMaxDISCRETE A      var MaxX A 0        for  var X 0 X lt A length X            if  MaxX lt A X               MaxX A X        return MaxX     function GetMaxAPPLY A      return Math max apply null A      function GetMaxREDUCE A      return A reduce function p c          return p gt c p c              The array A was filled with 100 000 random integer numbers  each function was executed 10 000 times on Mozilla Firefox 28 0 on an intel Pentium 4 2 99GHz desktop with Windows Vista  The times are in seconds  retrieved by performance now   function  The results were these  with 3 fractional digits and standard deviation    Discrete solution  mean 0 161s  sd 0 078 APPLY solution  mean 3 571s  sd 0 487 REDUCE solution  mean 0 350s  sd 0 044   The REDUCE solution was 117  slower than the discrete solution  The APPLY solution was the worse  2 118  slower than the discrete solution  Besides  as Peter observed  it doesn t work for large arrays  about more than 1 000 000 elements    Also  to complete the tests  I tested this extended discrete code   var MaxX A 0  MinX A 0    for  var X 0 X lt A length X        if  MaxX lt A X           MaxX A X       if  MinX gt A X           MinX A X       The timing  mean 0 218s  sd 0 094  So  it is 35  slower than the simple discrete solution  but it retrieves both the maximum and the minimum values at once  any other solution would take at least twice that to retrieve them   Once the OP needed both values  the discrete solution would be the best choice  even as two separate functions  one for calculating maximum and another for calculating minimum  they would outperform the second best  the REDUCE solution

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A simple solution to find the minimum value over an Array of elements is to use the Array prototype function reduce   A    4 3 -9 -2 2 1   A reduce  min  val    gt  val  lt  min   val   min  A 0       returns -9   or using JavaScript s built-in Math Min   function  thanks  Tenflex    A reduce  min val    gt  Math min min val   A 0      This sets min to A 0   and then checks for A 1    A n  whether it is strictly less than the current min  If A i   lt  min then min is updated to A i   When all array elements has been processed  min is returned as the result    EDIT  Include position of minimum value   A    4 3 -9 -2 2 1   A reduce  min  val    gt  val  lt  min  min     min  val   idx  min  curr   curr  min  curr   1      min  min  min   idx  min  idx   curr  min  curr   1     min  A 0    idx  0   curr  0       returns    min  -9   idx  2   curr  6

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Others have already given some solutions in which they augment Array prototype  All I want in this answer is to clarify whether it should be Math min apply  Math  array   or Math min apply  null  array    So what context should be used  Math or null    When passing null as a context to apply  then the context will default to the global object  the window object in the case of browsers   Passing the Math object as the context would be the correct solution  but it won t hurt passing null either  Here s an example when null might cause trouble  when decorating the Math max function      decorate Math max  function  oldMax        Math max   function              this foo       call Math foo  or at least that s what we want          return oldMax apply this  arguments             Math max    Math foo   function          print  foo        Array prototype max   function       return Math max apply null  this       lt -- passing null as the context     var max    1  2  3  max     print max     The above will throw an exception because this foo will be evaluated as window foo  which is undefined  If we replace null with Math  things will work as expected and the string  foo  will be printed to the screen  I tested this using Mozilla Rhino    You can pretty much assume that nobody has decorated Math max so  passing null will work without problems

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You can use Array sort but you ll have to write a simple number sorting function since the default is alphabetic   Look at example 2 here   Then you can grab arr 0  and arr arr length-1  to get min and max

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apply is often used when the intention is to invoke a variadic function with a list of argument values  e g   The Math max  value1  value2         function returns the largest of zero or more numbers   Math max 10  20      20 Math max -10  -20      -10 Math max -10  20      20   The Math max   method doesn t allow you to pass in an array  If you have a list of values of which you need to get the largest  you would normally call this function using Function prototype apply    e g    Math max apply null   10  20       20 Math max apply null   -10  -20       -10 Math max apply null   -10  20       20   However  as of the ECMAScript 6 you can use the spread operator      The spread operator allows an expression to be expanded in places where multiple arguments  for function calls  or multiple elements  for array literals  are expected    Using the spread operator  the above can be rewritten as such   Math max     10  20       20 Math max     -10  -20       -10 Math max     -10  20       20   When calling a function using the variadic operator  you can even add additional values  e g   Math max     10  20   50      50 Math max     -10  -20   50      50   Bonus   Spread operator enables you to use the array literal syntax to create new arrays in situations where in ES5 you would need to fall back to imperative code  using a combination of push  splice  etc   let foo     b    c    let bar     a      foo   d    e         a    b    c    d    e

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I thought I d share my simple and easy to understand solution   For the min    x000D   x000D  var arr    3  4  12  1  0  5   x000D  var min   arr 0   x000D  for  var k   1  k  lt  arr length  k      x000D    if  arr k   lt  min    x000D      min   arr k   x000D      x000D    x000D  console log  Min is      min   x000D   x000D   x000D    And for the max     x000D   x000D  var arr    3  4  12  1  0  5   x000D  var max   arr 0   x000D  for  var k   1  k  lt  arr length  k      x000D    if  arr k   gt  max    x000D      max   arr k   x000D      x000D    x000D  console log  Max is      max   x000D   x000D   x000D

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I like Linus s reduce   approach  especially for large arrays   But as long as you know you need both min and the max  why iterate over the array twice   Array prototype minmax   function        return this reduce function  p  v        return   p 0   lt  v   p 0    v    p 1   gt  v   p 1    v          this 0   this 0         Of course  if you prefer the iterative approach  you can do that too   Array prototype minmax   function          var mn   this 0   mx   this 0       this forEach function  v            if  v  lt  mn  mn   v          if  v  gt  mx  mx   v              return  mn  mx

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Using spread operator  ES6   Math max    array       the same with  min    gt  Math min    array      x000D   x000D  const array    10  2  33  4  5   x000D   x000D  console log  x000D    Math max    array  x000D    x000D   x000D   x000D

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You can use the following function anywhere in your project   function getMin array       return Math min apply Math array      function getMax array       return Math max apply Math array       And then you can call the functions passing the array   var myArray    1 2 3 4 5 6 7   var maximo   getMax myArray     return the highest number

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Alternative Methods  The Math min and Math max methods are both recursive operations that being added to the JS engine s call stack  and most likely crash for an array that contains large number of items  more than  107 items  depends on the user s browser    Uncaught RangeError  Maximum call stack size exceeded  Instead  consider using something like so  arr reduce  max  val    gt  max  gt  val   max   val   Or with better run-time  function maxValue arr      let max   arr 0      for  let val of arr        if  val  gt  max          max   val              return max     Or to get both Min and Max  function getMinMax arr      return arr reduce   min  max   v    gt         min  min  lt  v   min   v      max  max  gt  v   max   v          min  arr 0   max  arr 0         Or with even better run-time   function getMinMax arr      let min   arr 0     let max   arr 0     let i   arr length         while  i--        min   arr i   lt  min   arr i    min      max   arr i   gt  max   arr i    max        return   min  max         Tested with 1 000 000 items  Just for a reference  the 1st function run-time  on my machine  was 15 84ms vs 2nd function with only 4 32ms

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https   developer mozilla org ru docs Web JavaScript Reference Global Objects Math max   x000D   x000D  function getMaxOfArray numArray    x000D    return Math max apply null  numArray   x000D    x000D   x000D  var arr    100  0  50   x000D  console log getMaxOfArray arr   x000D   x000D   x000D    this worked for me

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var max of array   Math max apply Math  array     For a full discussion see  http   aaroncrane co uk 2008 11 javascript max api

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If you need performance then this is the best way for small arrays   var min   99999  var max   0  for var i   0  i  lt  v length  i          if v i   lt  min                min   v i             if v i   gt   max                max   v i

[javascript] Find the min/max element of an array in JavaScript

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