Working with lists and the fantastic list-abs, but got stuck on what seem like a couple of simple problems.

1. How to find the lowest value in a list of unknown length, that isn't a 0 or 1.

2. In a list of unknown length, exchange the values for others based on a key e.g. when element=32 change element to 444 and so on.
   I'm guessing the way to do it would be to have a very long [unpack] running into a bank of [sel] objects that trigger corresponding messages.
   Then a very long [pack], then split the list to the input length?
   Haven't tried to implement it yet, maybe there's a more efficient way?

@lead As you do not know the length of the list you should (probably) "drip" the list.... then do your manipulations on the individual elements using [expr] or [sel] and then put it back together using [add2 $1( and banging the list out with a trigger from the top of your patch (preceeded by a [set( message to clear the previous list).
Using vanilla you will need to use the [list-drip] abstraction made by Mathieu Bouchard..... list-drip.pd
See screenshot for how to find lowest value........
David.
manipulation.pd

Hi there,
here is my quick go at what you are looking for. These abstractions seem to work but only with lists that consist of just floats. I think if there is a symbol in there it gets dropped or something.
I'm sure this could be done more elegantly but at least it gives you something to work with.
Hope it helps.

list-substitute.pd
list-substitute-help.pd
list-minvalue.pd
list-minvalue-help.pd

@weightless @whale-av Thank you both so much, great solutions.

list-abs already has [list-minmax] and [list-replace], which do what you're looking for.

Also, depending on the task you're trying to accomplish, you might consider using arrays instead of lists. [array set] and [array min] are both very useful tools.

@LiamG Those list-abs abstractions almost do, but not quite, hence me asking. Sure they could with a couple of tweaks, but like I said in original post - got stuck on it!

@weightless Your list-minvalue.pd abstraction is exactly what I'm looking for to solve a problem I'm having. However, when I use it it only does what it's supposed to once. After that the out does not change, even when a different list is passed. I have no real understanding of what the patch is actually doing. Would you have any idea of how to debug this?

As an example: if I pass a list 0 0 5 6 7, [list-minvalue] will correctly output 5 as the minimum non-zero value. However, if I then pass another list like 0 0 7 8 9, [list-minvalue] will continue to output 5 instead of 7 as it really should do.

Any ideas?

You're quite right, I have fixed it now.
The patch works like this: it outputs all the values in the list one by one and checks if each number is smaller than the previous one, and every new smallest number is stored in an [f ] object which is banged after the last element of the list is processed. Of course the first element is always going to be the smallest so it needs to be checked against a very high number (1e+06), which needs to be initialised when a new list is sent to the inlet.

list-minvalue.pd

@weightless Hello..... see "manipulation" above....
David.

@whale-av Hi, the manipulation abstraction you posted has the same problem. I think you need to re-set the [f 1e+06] before dripping a new list instead of just clearing the message, otherwise when the first item of a new list bangs the [f] on the right inlet of [min], it will still be the smallest number of the previous list.

@weightless Thanks...... yes I forgot that reset!