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

MathWorks Cody Team

6K solvers

28 likes

Solve

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

17654 Solutions

5549 Solvers

Last Solution submitted on Oct 09, 2026

Last 200 Solutions

Problem 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 Solvers5549

Problem Tags

Community Treasure Hunt

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

Start Hunting!