How can I find the index of the maximum value in a List in Scala? - scala

Question

For a Scala List[Int] I can call the method max to find the maximum element value.
How can I find the index of the maximum element?
This is what I am doing now:
val max = list.max
val index = list.indexOf(max)

Answer 1

One way to do this is to zip the list with its indices, find the resulting pair with the largest first element, and return the second element of that pair:
scala> List(0, 43, 1, 34, 10).zipWithIndex.maxBy(_._1)._2
res0: Int = 1
This isn't the most efficient way to solve the problem, but it's idiomatic and clear.

Answer 2

Since Seq is a function in Scala, the following code works:
list.indices.maxBy(list)

Answer 3

even easier to read would be:
val g = List(0, 43, 1, 34, 10)
val g_index=g.indexOf(g.max)

Answer 4

def maxIndex[ T <% Ordered[T] ] (list : List[T]) : Option[Int] = list match {
case Nil => None
case head::tail => Some(
tail.foldLeft((0, head, 1)){
case ((indexOfMaximum, maximum, index), elem) =>
if(elem > maximum) (index, elem, index + 1)
else (indexOfMaximum, maximum, index + 1)
}._1
)
} //> maxIndex: [T](list: List[T])(implicit evidence$2: T => Ordered[T])Option[Int]
maxIndex(Nil) //> res0: Option[Int] = None
maxIndex(List(1,2,3,4,3)) //> res1: Option[Int] = Some(3)
maxIndex(List("a","x","c","d","e")) //> res2: Option[Int] = Some(1)
maxIndex(Nil).getOrElse(-1) //> res3: Int = -1
maxIndex(List(1,2,3,4,3)).getOrElse(-1) //> res4: Int = 3
maxIndex(List(1,2,2,1)).getOrElse(-1) //> res5: Int = 1
In case there are multiple maximums, it returns the first one's index.
Pros:You can use this with multiple types, it goes through the list only once, you can supply a default index instead of getting exception for empty lists.
Cons:Maybe you prefer exceptions :) Not a one-liner.

Answer 5

I think most of the solutions presented here go thru the list twice (or average 1.5 times) -- Once for max and the other for the max position. Perhaps a lot of focus is on what looks pretty?
In order to go thru a non empty list just once, the following can be tried:
list.foldLeft((0, Int.MinValue, -1)) {
case ((i, max, maxloc), v) =>
if (v > max) (i + 1, v, i)
else (i + 1, max, maxloc)}._3

Answer 6

Pimp my library! :)
class AwesomeList(list: List[Int]) {
def getMaxIndex: Int = {
val max = list.max
list.indexOf(max)
}
}
implicit def makeAwesomeList(xs: List[Int]) = new AwesomeList(xs)
//> makeAwesomeList: (xs: List[Int])scalaconsole.scratchie1.AwesomeList
//Now we can do this:
List(4,2,7,1,5,6) getMaxIndex //> res0: Int = 2
//And also this:
val myList = List(4,2,7,1,5,6) //> myList : List[Int] = List(4, 2, 7, 1, 5, 6)
myList getMaxIndex //> res1: Int = 2
//Regular list methods also work
myList filter (_%2==0) //> res2: List[Int] = List(4, 2, 6)
More details about this pattern here: http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=179766