Problem 16. Return the largest number that is adjacent to a zero

Created by Cody Team

Solve Later

This example comes from Steve Eddins' blog: Learning Lessons from a One-Liner

Write a function that takes a list or array of numbers as input and return the largest number that is adjacent to a zero.

Example:

 Input  x = [1 5 3 0 2 7 0 8 9 1 0]
 Output y is 8

This problem was originally posed by Greg Wilson of Software Carpentry.

Solve

Solution Stats

17415 Solutions
5417 Solvers

Last Solution submitted on Apr 25, 2025

Last 200 Solutions

Problem Comments

4 Comments

4 Comments

Show 1 older comment

Gaik Tamazian on 17 Feb 2012

Two more tests:
1. Input x = [-4 -2 0 -4 -1 0]
Output y is -1.
2. Input x = [-9 -3 0 0 -5 0 -2 -1]
Output y is -2.

Geoff on 8 May 2012

Good comment, Gaik. A lot of solutions (including mine) will break with two consecutive zeros.

Nicolae Preda on 23 Sep 2013

Why: "Input x = [-9 -3 0 0 -5 0 -2 -1] Output y is -2."???
Output should be 0. It doesn't say anywhere that the number adjacent to a zero must be nonzero!

Kendale Greenidge-Bullock on 8 Dec 2017

This was challenging

Solution Comments

Show comments

Problem Recent Solvers5417

Problem Tags

Community Treasure Hunt

Find the treasures in MATLAB Central and discover how the community can help you!

Start Hunting!

Problem 16. Return the largest number that is adjacent to a zero

Solution Stats

Last 200 Solutions

Problem Comments

Solution Comments

Problem Recent Solvers5417

Suggested Problems

More from this Author96

Problem Tags

Community Treasure Hunt

Problem 16. Return the largest number that is adjacent to a zero

Solution Stats

Last 200 Solutions

Problem Comments

Solution Comments

Problem Recent Solvers5417

Suggested Problems

More from this Author96

Problem Tags

Community Treasure Hunt

Players