Python program to find smallest number in a list

We are given a list of numbers and our task is to write a Python program to find the smallest number in given list. For the following program we can use various methods including the built-in min method, sorting the  array and returning the last element, etc.
Example: 

Input : list1 = [10, 20, 4]
Output : 4

Input : list2 = [20, 10, 20, 1, 100]
Output : 1

Sorting the list to find smallest number in a list

In Ascending order

Here writing a Python program where we are sorting the entire list and then returning the first element as it’ll be the smallest element present in the list.

Python3

# Python program to find smallest
# number in a list

# list of numbers
list1 = [10, 20, 4, 45, 99]

# sorting the list
list1.sort()

# printing the first element
print("Smallest element is:", list1[0])

Output: 

smallest element is: 4

In Descending order

Here we are sorting using the sort() function the entire list and then returning the last element as it’ll be the smallest element present in the list.

Python3

# list of numbers
list1 = [10, 20, 4, 45, 99]

# sorting the list
list1.sort(reverse=True)

# printing the first element
print("Smallest element is:", list1[-1])

Output:

smallest element is: 4

Using min() Method to find smallest number in a list

Here we are using the min Method and then returning the smallest element present in the list.

Python3

# Python program to find smallest
# number in a list

# list of numbers
list1 = [10, 20, 1, 45, 99]


# printing the maximum element
print("Smallest element is:", min(list1))

Output: 

Smallest element is: 1

Find minimum list element for a user defined list

Python3

# Python program to find smallest
# number in a list

# creating empty list
list1 = []

# asking number of elements to put in list
num = int(input("Enter number of elements in list: "))

# iterating till num to append elements in list
for i in range(1, num + 1):
    ele= int(input("Enter elements: "))
    list1.append(ele)

# print maximum element
print("Smallest element is:", min(list1))

Output: 

Enter number of elements in list: 4
Enter elements: 12
Enter elements: 19
Enter elements: 11
Enter elements: 99
Smallest element is: 11

Find the smallest element in list comparing every element

Python3

# Python program to find smallest
# number in a list

l=[ int(l) for l in input("List:").split(",")]
print("The list is ",l)

# Assign first element as a minimum.
min1 = l[0]

for i in range(len(l)):

    # If the other element is min than first element
    if l[i] < min1:
        min1 = l[i] #It will change

print("The smallest element in the list is ",min1)

Input: 

List: 23,-1,45,22.6,78,100,-5

Output:

The list is ['23', '-1', '45', '22.6', '78', '100','-5']
The smallest element in the list is  -5

Using the lambda function to find smallest number in a list

Here we are using the lambda function to print the smallest number present in the list.

Python3

# Python code to print smallest element in the list

lst = [20, 10, 20, 1, 100]
print(min(lst, key=lambda value: int(value)) )

Output:

1

Using the enumerate function to find smallest number in a list

Here we are iterating over the list using the enumerate() function and returning the last element.

Python3

lst = [20, 10, 20, 1, 100]
a,i = min((a,i) for (i,a) in enumerate(lst))
print(a)

Output:

1