transation haskell to sml

[nikos nikosn]

I have an algorithm which when we have K different sets of numbers,we have to choose a number from each set, so that the difference between the higher and the lower number is the minimum.

import Data.List (maximum, minimum, minimumBy)
minDiff (x:xs) = comb (head x) (diff $ matches (head x)) x where
  diff m = abs (maximum m - minimum m)
  matches y = map (minimumBy (\a b -> compare (abs (a - y)) (abs (b - y)))) xs
  comb result difference []     = [result] ++ matches result
  comb result difference (z:zs) =
    let diff' = diff (matches z) 
    in if diff' < difference
          then comb z diff' zs
          else comb result difference zs

i want to translate this code to sml, can someone help me?

[Sean Corfield]

I can take a stab at it but first I'd like to know why you need it in Standard ML and how far you've gotten with the translation so far?

[nikos nikosn]

firstly, i dont know how can this "import Data.List (maximum, minimum, minimumBy)" be done in sml. i am trying to understand differences in these two languages..

[Sean Corfield]

nikos nikosn wrote:firstly, i dont know how can this "import Data.List (maximum, minimum, minimumBy)" be done in sml. i am trying to understand differences in these two languages..

I would deduce that imports the functions maximum, minimum and minimumBy from the Data.List library. Those are functions that operate on lists so maximum m will give the maximum element of the list m. From the usage of minimumBy I would deduce it is a two argument function that takes a comparator (of two arguments) and a list, and returns the minimum element according to that comparator. The rest of the code looks pretty straightforward. You should be able to deduce what $ does from the usage...