Nearest Occurrence Between Two Elements in a List

When it is required to display nearest occurrence between two elements in a list, a method is defined that takes three parameters. It uses the ‘not in’ operator, and the list comprehension to determine the result.

Below is a demonstration of the same −

Example

def nearest_occurence_list(my_list, x, y):
   if x not in my_list or y not in my_list:
      return -1
   x_index = [index for index in range(len(my_list)) if my_list[index] == x]
   y_index = my_list.index(y)
   min_dist = 1000000
   result = None
   for element in x_index:
      if abs(element - y_index) < min_dist:
         result = element
         min_dist = abs(element - y_index)
   return result
my_list = [12, 24, 15, 17, 28, 26, 13, 28, 14, 12, 20, 19, 24, 29, 14]
print("The list is :")
print(my_list)
x = 14
print("The value of x is ")
print(x)
y = 26
print("The value of y is ")
print(y)
print("The result is :")
print(nearest_occurence_list(my_list, x, y))

Output

The list is :
[12, 24, 15, 17, 28, 26, 13, 28, 14, 12, 20, 19, 24, 29, 14]
The value of x is
14
The value of y is
26
The result is :
8

Explanation

• A method named ‘nearest_occurence_list’ is defined that takes three parameters.

• If the second or third parameter is not present in first parameter, then -1 is returned.

• A list comprehension is used to iterate over the elements and get the length of the list if the list contains the first parameter.

• This is assigned to variable one.

• The index of the second parameter is determined.

• The elements within variable one are iterated over, and the difference between the element and index of y is compared with a specific value.

• Depending on this, the result is returned.

• Outside the method, a list is defined and displayed on the console.

• The values for x and y are defined and displayed on the console.

• The method is called by passing the required parameters.

• This is the output that is displayed on the console.