Finding minimum number for each element in 2 lists of integers in Python

Question

I need to write Python code that compares/relays through 2 lists of integers and then prints the smaller number of each element. I currently have this:

    x = range(0, 2**32)
    y = range(2**32, 2**64)
    def minimum(a, b):
       """print the minimum for each element of 2 lists of integers"""
       for i in (a,b):
          print(min(a, b))

I am getting an error which reads :

"'<' not supported between instances of 'range' and 'range'."

Is there another way to solve my problem without the range function?

@ForceBru My crystal ball suggest for i, j in zip(a, b): print(min(i, j)). — Sven Marnach
– Sven Marnach, Commented Jun 15, 2017 at 14:34
Side note: You don't want to iterate over ranges with 2**64 as upper boundary. It tends to take a few thousand years. — Sven Marnach
– Sven Marnach, Commented Jun 15, 2017 at 14:37
@SvenMarnach, range(2**32) will be exhausted quite a bit before the second range, so as long as you don't use itertools.zip_longest you'll be fine — Maarten Fabré
– Maarten Fabré, Commented Jun 15, 2017 at 14:56
@SvenMarnach That worked perfectly-I cannot thank you enough! — H. Minear
– H. Minear, Commented Jun 15, 2017 at 15:28

Ajax1234 · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-15 14:37:25Z

1

You can try this:

x = range(0, 2**32)
y = range(2**32, 2**64)

new_list = map(min, zip(x, y))

print(list(new_list))

new_list now stores the minimum values for every index of both lists.

answered Jun 15, 2017 at 14:37

Ajax1234

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9 Comments

Sven Marnach Over a year ago

In Python 3, new_list isn't actually a list.

Ajax1234 Over a year ago

I understand. I merely picked the name "new_list" on the fly.

H. Minear Over a year ago

@Ajax1234 thank you! Unfortunately I am now getting a memory error. I have never had this before-do you have any advice on how to fix this?

Ajax1234 Over a year ago

You are attempting to create a generator which, despite its efficiency, is still trying to crunch a list that for x, will be of length 4e9, and the last, which is approximately 1.8e19, which is greater than the estimated amount of grains of sand in the universe!

Sven Marnach Over a year ago

@H.Minear You are creating a list with 4 billion integers. This would require hundreds of gigabytes of memory (at least on a 64-bit machine).

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