lowestvalue

Lowestvalue is a term used to describe the smallest value within a set of numbers or the minimum value of a function over its domain. In mathematics, the minimum of a nonempty set S is an element m in S such that m ≤ x for every x in S. If such an element exists, it is called the minimum; if not, the set has no minimum, though it may have an infimum, or greatest lower bound.

In data analysis and computing, the concept is often referred to as the observed minimum. Determining the lowestvalue can be done by a single pass through the data with linear time complexity (O(n)). Most programming languages provide built-in support: Python’s min(sequence), JavaScript’s Math.min(...), SQL’s SELECT MIN(column), and spreadsheet MIN functions. When data include non-numeric values or missing values, the result depends on the language or library’s handling rules.

Examples help illustrate the idea: for the list [4, -2, 7, 0], the lowestvalue is -2. For a function f defined on an interval, the lowestvalue is the minimum value of f on that interval; under appropriate conditions (e.g., continuity on a closed interval), a minimum exists.

Special cases include empty collections, which have no lowestvalue, and data with NaN or invalid entries, which can affect results if not properly filtered. Applications span data cleaning, statistical analysis, thresholding, and optimization. See also minimum, infimum, lower bound, and argmin.