Key For Minimum Value

Objectives

  1. Build a method that accepts an argument of a hash and iterates over it.

Instructions

  1. Fork and clone this lab
  2. Build a method key_for_min_value that accepts an argument of a hash. This method should iterate over the hash and return the key (not the value!) that points to the smallest value of the set. If the method is called and passed an argument of an empty hash, it should return nil.

Here are some examples:

ikea = {:chair => 25, :table => 85, :mattress => 450}
key_for_min_value(ikea)
# => :chair

veggies = {"apple" => -45, "banana" => -44.5, "carrot" => -44.9}
key_for_min_value(veggies)
# => "apple"

A Few Restrictions: We want you to build this on your own. Some of the following methods are helpful but off limits for this exercise. (We'll cover a few below in more depth in subsequent lessons).

  • #keys
  • #values
  • #min
  • #sort
  • #min_by

A Helpful Hint:

  • Think about how to determine which value is the lowest. Do you need to compare each value to something as you iterate?
  • Think about how to collect or store the correct key. Remember that you need your method to return just this key.