Find the x smallest integers in a list of length n

Question

You have a list of n integers and you want the x smallest. For example,

x_smallest([1, 2, 5, 4, 3], 3) should return [1, 2, 3].

I\'ll v

Answer 1

You can sort then take the first x values?

Java: with QuickSort O(n log n)

import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Random;

public class Main {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Random random = new Random(); // Random number generator
        int[] list = new int[1000];
        int lenght = 3;

        // Initialize array with positive random values
        for (int i = 0; i < list.length; i++) {
            list[i] = Math.abs(random.nextInt());
        }

        // Solution
        int[] output = findSmallest(list, lenght);

        // Display Results
        for(int x : output)
            System.out.println(x);
    }

    private static int[] findSmallest(int[] list, int lenght) {
        // A tuned quicksort
        Arrays.sort(list);
        // Send back correct lenght
        return Arrays.copyOf(list, lenght);     
    }

}

Its pretty fast.