C Program to Find Smallest Number in an Array

In this article we will show you the C Program to Find Smallest Number in an Array (One Dimensional Array) and also the index position of the smallest number in an Array.

Before going into this smallest number in array in C article, Please refer Array in C article to understand the concept of Array size, index position etc.

C Program to Find Smallest Number in an Array

In this C Program to find smallest number in array, We declared 1 One Dimensional Arrays a[] of size 10 and also declared i to iterate the Array elements, Smallest variable to hold the smallest element in an Array and Position variable to hold the Index position of the smallest element in an Array.

/*C Program to find Smallest Number in an Array*/

#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{
  int a[10], Size, i, Smallest, Position;
  
  printf("\nPlease Enter the size of an array \n");
  scanf("%d",&Size);

  printf("\nPlease Enter %d elements of an array: \n", Size);
  for(i=0; i<Size; i++)
   {
   	 scanf("%d",&a[i]);
   }   

  Smallest = a[0];
  for(i=1; i<Size; i++)
   {
    if(Smallest > a[i])
     {
       Smallest = a[i];
       Position = i;
	 }   
   }
  
  printf("\nSmallest element in an Array = %d", Smallest);
  printf("\nIndex position of the Smallest element = %d", Position);
  
  return 0;
}

OUTPUT

ANALYSIS

Within this find smallest number in array in C program, Below printf statement asks the User to enter the array a[] size (Number of elements an Array can hold).

printf("\n Please Enter the size of an array \n");

Below scanf statement will assign the user entered values to Size variable.

scanf("%d",&Size);

Below For loop will help to iterate each and every cell present in the a[4] array. Condition inside the for loops (i < Size) will ensure the compiler, not to exceed the array limit.

scanf statement inside the for loop will store the user entered values in every individual array element such as a[0], a[1], a[2], a[3]

for(i=0; i<size; <span="" class="hiddenGrammarError" pre="" data-mce-bogus="1">i++)

In the next line of C smallest number in array, We assigned the a[0] value to the Smallest variable.

Smallest = a[0];

In the next line, We have one more for loop, it is used to iterate each and every element in an array. If Statement inside the For loop will find the smallest Number in an Array by comparing each element in the array with the Smallest value.

for(i=1; i<size; <span="" class="hiddenGrammarError" pre="" data-mce-bogus="1">i++)

From the above screenshot you can observe that, User inserted values are
a[4] = {10, 6, 98, 45}
Largest = a[0] = 10

First Iteration
The value of i will be 1 and the condition (i < 4) is True. So, it will start executing the statements inside the loop until the condition fails.
If statement (Smallest > a[i]) inside the for loop is True because (10 > 6)
Smallest = a[i] = a[1]
Smallest = 6
Position = 1

Second Iteration
The value of i will be 2 and the condition (i < 4) is True. So, it will start executing the statements inside the loop until the condition fails.
If statement (Smallest > a[i]) inside the for loop is False because (6 < 98) so, smallest value will not be updated. It means
Smallest = 6
Position = 1

Third Iteration
The value of i will be 3 and the condition (i < 4) is True. So, it will start executing the statements inside the loop until the condition fails.
If statement (Smallest > a[i]) inside the for loop is False because (6 < 45). So smallest value will not be updated. It means
Smallest = 6
Position = 1

Fourth Iteration
After the incrementing the value of i, i will become 5. So, the condition (i < Size) will fail. So it will exit from the loop.

Below printf statement is used yo print the Smallest Number inside an Array. In this example, it is 6

printf("\nSmallest element in an Array = %d", Smallest);

Below printf statement is used yo print the Index Position of the Largest Number inside an Array. In this example, it is occurred at position 2

printf("\nIndex position of the Smallest element = %d", Position);

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