1NAME 2 min - minimum, or minimum of defined minima 3 4SYNOPSIS 5 min(x_1, x_2, ...) 6 7TYPES 8 x_1, x_2, ... any 9 10 return any 11 12DESCRIPTION 13 If an argument x_i is a list with elements e_1, e_2, ..., e_n, it 14 is treated as if x_i were replaced by e_1, e_2, ..., e_n; this may 15 continue recursively if any of the e_j is a list. 16 17 If an argument x_i is an object of type xx, then x_i is replaced by 18 xx_min(x_i) if the function xx_min() has been defined. If the 19 type xx has been defined by: 20 21 obj xx = {x, y, z}, 22 23 an appropriate definition of xx_min(a) is sometimes min(a.x, a.y, a.z). 24 min(a) then returns the minimum of the elements of a. 25 26 If x_i has the null value, it is ignored. Thus, sum(a, , b, , c) 27 28 If x_i has the null value, it is ignored. Thus, min(a, , b, , c) 29 will return the same as min(a, b, c). 30 31 Assuming the above replacements, and that the x_1, x_2, ..., are 32 of sufficiently simple ordered types (e.g. real numbers or strings), 33 or, if some are objects, the relevant xx_rel(a,b) has been defined 34 and returns a real-number value for any comparison that has to be made, 35 min(x_1, x_2, ...) returns the value determined by min(x_1) = x_1, 36 and successively for later arguments, by the use of the equivalent of 37 min(a,b) = (a < b) ? a : b. If the ordering determined by < is total, 38 min(x_1, ...) will be the minimum value among the arguments. For a 39 pre-order relation it may be one of several minimal values. For other 40 relations, it may be difficult to predict the result. 41 42EXAMPLE 43 ; print min(2), min(5, 3, 7, 2, 9), min(3.2, -0.5, 8.7, -1.2, 2.5) 44 2 2 -1.2 45 46 ; print min(list(3,5), 7, list(6, list(7,8), 2)) 47 2 48 49 ; print min("one", "two", "three", "four") 50 four 51 52 ; obj point {x, y} 53 ; define point_rel(a,b) = sgn(a.x - b.x) 54 ; obj point A = {1, 5} 55 ; obj point B = {1, 4} 56 ; obj point C = {3, 3} 57 ; print min(A, B, C) 58 obj point {1, 5} 59 60 ; define point_min(a) = a.x 61 ; print min(A, B, C) 62 1 63 64LIMITS 65 The number of arguments is not to exceed 1024. 66 67LINK LIBRARY 68 NUMBER *qmin(NUMBER *x1, NUMBER *x2) 69 70SEE ALSO 71 max, obj, sum, ssq 72 73## Copyright (C) 1999-2006,2021 Landon Curt Noll 74## 75## Calc is open software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under 76## the terms of the version 2.1 of the GNU Lesser General Public License 77## as published by the Free Software Foundation. 78## 79## Calc is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT 80## ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY 81## or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Lesser General 82## Public License for more details. 83## 84## A copy of version 2.1 of the GNU Lesser General Public License is 85## distributed with calc under the filename COPYING-LGPL. You should have 86## received a copy with calc; if not, write to Free Software Foundation, Inc. 87## 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA. 88## 89## Under source code control: 1995/10/05 04:52:27 90## File existed as early as: 1995 91## 92## chongo <was here> /\oo/\ http://www.isthe.com/chongo/ 93## Share and enjoy! :-) http://www.isthe.com/chongo/tech/comp/calc/ 94