Find Missing Number in Arithmetic Progression Sequence in JavaScript

Arithmetic Progression:

An arithmetic progression (AP) or arithmetic sequence is a sequence of numbers such that the difference between the consecutive terms is constant.

For instance, the sequence 5, 7, 9, 11, 13...

Suppose we have an array that represents elements of arithmetic progression in order. But somehow one of the numbers from the progression goes missing. We are required to write a JavaScript function that takes in one such array as the first and the only argument.

Then our function, in one iteration, should find and return the number which is missing from the sequence.

For example −

If the input array is −

const arr = [7, 13, 19, 31, 37, 43];

Then the output should be −

const output = 25;

because 25 is missing between 19 and 31

Example

The code for this will be −

 Live Demo

const arr = [7, 13, 19, 31, 37, 43];
const findMissingNumber = (arr = []) => {
   let {length} = arr;
   let diff1 = arr[1] - arr[0];
   let diff2 = arr[length - 1] - arr[length - 2];
   if (diff1 !== diff2) {
      if (diff1 == 2 * diff2){
         return arr[0] + diff2;
      }else{
         return arr[length - 1] - diff1;
      };
   };
   for (let i = 1; i < length - 2; i++){
      if (arr[i + 1] - arr[i] != diff1){
         return arr[i] + diff1;
      };
   };
   return arr[0];
};
console.log(findMissingNumber(arr));

Output

And the output in the console will be −

25