Wednesday, July 8, 2026
HomeLanguagesFinding the k smallest values of a NumPy array

Finding the k smallest values of a NumPy array

In this article, let us see how to find the k number of the smallest values from a NumPy array.

Examples:

Input: [1,3,5,2,4,6] 
k = 3

Output: [1,2,3] 

Method 1: Using np.sort()

Approach:

  1. Create a NumPy array.
  2. Determine the value of k.
  3. Sort the array in ascending order using the sort() method.
  4. Print the first k values of the sorted array.

Python3




# importing the modules
import numpy as np
  
# creating the array 
arr = np.array([23, 12, 1, 3, 4, 5, 6])
print("The Original Array Content")
print(arr)
  
# value of k
k = 4
  
# sorting the array
arr1 = np.sort(arr)
  
# k smallest number of array
print(k, "smallest elements of the array")
print(arr1[:k])


Output:

The Original Array Content
[23 12  1  3  4  5  6]
4 smallest elements of the array
[1 3 4 5]

Method 2: Using np.argpartition() 

Approach:

  1. Create a NumPy array.
  2. Determine the value of k.
  3. Get the indexes of the smallest k elements using the argpartition() method.
  4. Fetch the first k values from the array obtained from argpartition() and print their index values with respect to the original array.

Python3




# importing the module
import numpy as np
  
# creating the array 
arr = np.array([23, 12, 1, 3, 4, 5, 6])
print("The Original Array Content")
print(arr)
  
# value of k
k = 4
  
# using np.argpartition()
result = np.argpartition(arr, k)
  
# k smallest number of array
print(k, "smallest elements of the array")
print(arr[result[:k]])


Output:

The Original Array Content
[23 12  1  3  4  5  6]
4 smallest elements of the array
[4 3 1 5]
RELATED ARTICLES

4 COMMENTS

Most Popular

Dominic
32519 POSTS0 COMMENTS
Milvus
131 POSTS0 COMMENTS
Nango Kala
6901 POSTS0 COMMENTS
Nicole Veronica
12017 POSTS0 COMMENTS
Nokonwaba Nkukhwana
12111 POSTS0 COMMENTS
Shaida Kate Naidoo
7019 POSTS0 COMMENTS
Ted Musemwa
7263 POSTS0 COMMENTS
Thapelo Manthata
6978 POSTS0 COMMENTS
Umr Jansen
6968 POSTS0 COMMENTS