N Minimum Elements Challenge

Introduction

In this challenge, you are tasked with writing a Python function that returns the n minimum elements from a given list.

Skills Graph

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N Minimum Elements

Problem

Write a function called min_n(lst, n = 1) that takes in a list lst and an optional integer n (default value of 1). The function should return a new list containing the n smallest elements from the original list lst. If n is not provided, the function should return a list containing the smallest element from lst.

If n is greater than or equal to the length of lst, the function should return the original list sorted in ascending order.

Your function should accomplish this by following these steps:

Use the built-in sorted() function to sort the list in ascending order.
Use slice notation to get the specified number of elements.
Return the resulting list.

Example

min_n([1, 2, 3]) ## [1]
min_n([1, 2, 3], 2) ## [1, 2]

Summary

In this challenge, you learned how to write a Python function that returns the n minimum elements from a given list. You also learned how to use the built-in sorted() function and slice notation to accomplish this task.

N Minimum Elements | Challenge