Can I scan 10 arrays all together to find one smallest value between all arrays?

I have 10 arrays.I need to be able to find the smallest value. I want to find another way of doing this rather than combining all 10 arrays into 1 and then scanning them.

[Stephen23]

Do you mean:

• the smallest value that is common to all arrays, or
• the smallest value found within any one (or more) of the arrays?
• or something else?

[ME]

one smallest value from all the arrays

Answer 1

[Stephen23]

Basically you have to choose whether you combine the values or take the minimum first. Each of these has different advantages, so it depends on what you are trying to achieve:

1. Combine them into one array Z = [A,B,C,...] and then call min(Z(:)). This is likely to be the fastest and neatest code.
2. Combine the minimum of each Y = [min(A(:)),min(B(:)),...] and then min(Y).

Answer 2

[Jan]

You can solve this with a loop in a flexible way:

function MinValue = MinOfList(varargin)

MinValue = min(varargin{1}(:));
for k = 2:nargin
  MinValue = min(min(varargin{k}(:)), MinValue);
end

Now call this like:

m = MinOfList(rand(3), rand(7), -1, 1:12)