List of objects: return object with highest attribute value

Question

With a list of objects like this:

var products = [
  {productName: "Soap", qty: 2}, 
  {productName: "Shampoo", qty: 3}, 
  {productName: "Spray", qty: 1}
];

What would be the most efficient method to return the object in this list with the highest qty? (e.g. an alternative to use a for loop)

If there are two objects with the same qty, it would be ok to just return the first object with the highest qty in the list.

Shubham Khatri · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-13 09:51:07Z

4

You should use sort and then retrive the element.

products.sort(function(a,b){
     return b.qty - a.qty
})[0]

edited Sep 13, 2016 at 9:51

Shubham Khatri

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answered Sep 13, 2016 at 9:49

AB Udhay

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Comments

Nina Scholz · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-13 09:55:38Z

3

You could use Array#reduce and get the first one with the highest quantity.

This solution needs only one iteration: O(n).

var products = [{ productName: "Soap", qty: 2 }, { productName: "Shampoo", qty: 3 }, { productName: "Spray", qty: 1 }],
    highest = products.reduce(function (r, a, i) {
        return !i || a.qty > r.qty ? a : r;
    }, undefined);

console.log(highest);

edited Sep 13, 2016 at 9:55

answered Sep 13, 2016 at 9:47

Nina Scholz

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Comments

notgiorgi · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-13 09:49:32Z

1

I think the best way of doing it would be sorting and then retrieving element. Because sort is optimized on engine level and would be most efficient. I think, 95% of times, It'll use MergeSort.

product.sort(function(a, b) {
    return a.qty - b.qty 
})

This will sort elements in qty ascending order.

See Array.prototype.sort docs at: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/sort

answered Sep 13, 2016 at 9:49

notgiorgi

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2 Comments

Arnial Over a year ago

It will require n^2 comparisons. It's less effective then for loop and reduce. But it definitely less cryptic (at least for me).

notgiorgi Over a year ago

Yeah, now I see, it might be a very naive approach.

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