What's the Most Efficient Way to Find the Minimum and Maximum Values in a Java Array?

Seeking an Optimized Approach to Find Minimum and Maximum Values in an Array

The task of identifying the minimum and maximum values in an array seems like a straightforward exercise, as exemplified by the provided code snippet:

// Sample function to find maximum value in an array of chars
private static int maxValue(char[] chars) {
    int max = chars[0];
    for (int ktr = 0; ktr < chars.length; ktr++) {
        if (chars[ktr] > max) {
            max = chars[ktr];
        }
    }
    return max;
}

However, a question arises: Is there a more efficient approach already available in existing Java libraries?

Leveraging Commons Lang and Collections

Introducing Commons Lang's ArrayUtils and Collections' min/max methods, a convenient solution emerges:

import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Collections;

import org.apache.commons.lang.ArrayUtils;

public class MinMaxValue {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        char[] a = {'3', '5', '1', '4', '2'};

        List b = Arrays.asList(ArrayUtils.toObject(a));

        System.out.println(Collections.min(b));
        System.out.println(Collections.max(b));
    }
}

This approach utilizes the versatility of Arrays.asList() to wrap the existing array, allowing Collections.min() and Collections.max() to effortlessly find the minimum and maximum values, respectively.

Efficiency Considerations

It is worth noting that Arrays.asList() wraps the array without copying its elements, preserving memory efficiency. Consequently, this approach is suitable for scenarios where both memory consumption and performance are of concern.

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