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Find the absolute minimal difference between two elements in an unsorted array
  • Posted: 7 years ago
  • Updated: 6 years ago
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Suppose you are given an unsorted array containing only non-negative integers. How will you find the absolute minimal difference between any two numbers in the array?


Posted Answers

  • Posted: 7 years ago
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The algorithm to find the minimal absolute difference between two numbers in the array works as follows:


  • Sort the array.
  • Iterate through the sorted array and take the difference between the two consecutive numbers.
  • Return their minimum.

Time complexity = \( O(nlogn) \).

The following code snippet (in Java) illustrates the approach.

public int absMinDifferenceInAnArray(int[] array){

      /* Sort the array */
      Arrays.sort(array);
      /* Initialize difference between two consecutive numbers to zero */
      int minimum = 0;

      for(int i = 1; i  <  (array.length - 1); i++){
         int temp = Math.abs(array[i+1] - array[i]);
         if (temp  < = minimum)
            minimum = temp;
      }

      /* Return the minimum difference */
      return minimum;

  }
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