Finding the Min for positive and negative in python 3.3 list

Question

For example:

a=[-15,-30,-10,1,3,5]

I want to find a negative and a positive minimum.

example: negative
print(min(a)) = -30

positive
print(min(a)) = 1

Answer 1

min(a)
and
min([e for e in a if e >=0]

Comments

min(a)
This does not return a negative minimum on input [1] (because there is none).

min([e for e in a if e >=0]
This does not return a positive minimum on input [0] (because there is none).



I would have said:

    pos_min = min(e for e in a if e > 0)
    neg_min = min(e for e in a if e < 0)

And then deal with the ValueError when there is no such minimum, as appropriate.

Answer 2

try this:

min(a) => -30
min([n for n in a if i>0]) => 1