sorting for lowest array values

[Prozac]

so, what I want to do is detect the closest baddy to an npcs x and y location. here is what I have so far .. how can i sort the 2 arrays better?

PHP Code:

// NPC made by Prozac
if (created) {timeout=.05;}
if (timeout)
  {
  if (compuscount>0)
    {
    setarray badx,compuscount;
    setarray bady,compuscount;
    for(i=0; i<compuscount; i++;)  
      {
      badx[i]=abs(compus[i].x-x);
      bady[i]=abs(compus[i].y-y);
    }
    
    close=0; //close = the index of the baddy closest to npc
    for(j=0; j<arraylen(badx); j++;)
      {
      if (j>1)
        {
        if (badx[j-1]>badx[j] || bady[j-1]>bady[j]) {close=j;}
      }
    }
    showimg 1,chest.png,compus[close].x,compus[close].y;
    // it will do more interesting stuff but showimg is to see which baddy
  }
  timeout=.05;
} 


[napo_p2p]

You could do the distance calculation while scanning through the baddies:

PHP Code:

temp.close = -1;  //index of closest baddy
temp.smallestdist = 9999;  //distance from closest baddy
for (temp.i = 0; temp.i < compuscount; temp.i++) {
  temp.dist = ((compus[temp.i].x - x)^2 + (compus[temp.i].y - y)^2) ^ 0.5;
  if (temp.dist < temp.smallestdist) {
    //This baddy is the closest, so update
    temp.smallestdist = temp.dist;
    temp.close = temp.i;
  }
} 


[Prozac]

thanks! that works quite nicely

[Robin]

findareanpcs(float, float, float, float) - returns object - returns an array of all npcs at the specified rectangle (x,y,width,height)