[SOLVED] Splitting, comparing and outputting the most appropriate value in the array

Issue

I have a function that splits one large array into a target chunks.

function chunkArray(ls, k, t) {
 let outputArr = [];
 for (let i = 0; i < ls.length; i += k) {
    outputArr.push(ls.slice(i, k + i));
 }
 return  outputArr;
}

I need to modify the function so that it first sums each output array, and then compares the result to the target and outputs the sum of the array whose is close to the target.

const ls = [51, 56, 58, 59, 61, 63, 68, 70, 72];
chunkArray(ls, 3, 182);
=> arr1 = [51, 56, 58]; => 165
=> arr2 = [59, 61, 63]; => 183 
=> arr3 = [68, 70, 72]; => 210
=> 183

Please, advise how to correctly design the logic and which methods are most suitable for this task.

Solution

You could take a sum for each wanted k elements and compare the absolute delta of last and actual sum.

function chunkArray(ls, k, t) {
    let result = 0,
        i = 0;

    while (i < ls.length) {
        let sub = 0;
        for (let j = 0; j < k; j++) sub += ls[i + j] || 0;
        if (Math.abs(result - t) >  Math.abs(sub - t)) result = sub;
        i += k;
    }
    
    return result;
}

const ls = [51, 56, 58, 59, 61, 63, 68, 70, 72];
console.log(chunkArray(ls, 3, 182)); // 183

Answered By – Nina Scholz

Answer Checked By – Marie Seifert (BugsFixing Admin)