/***************************************************************************************

* *

* CODERBYTE BEGINNER CHALLENGE *

* *

* OffLine Minimum *

* Using the JavaScript language, have the function OffLineMinimum(strArr) take the *

* strArr parameter being passed which will be an array of integers ranging from *

* 1...n and the letter "E" and return the correct subset based on the following *

* rules. The input will be in the following format: ["I","I","E","I",...,"E",...,"I"] *

* where the I's stand for integers and the E means take out the smallest integer *

* currently in the whole set. When finished, your program should return that new set *

* with integers separated by commas. For example: if strArr is *

* ["5","4","6","E","1","7","E","E","3","2"] then your program should return 4,1,5. * *

* *

* SOLUTION *

* This challenge requires you to repeatedly find the lowerst value in a subset of an *

* array every time the letter E is found. So to handle this repettiion I am creating *

* a function that will sort an array in ascending order and return the lowest value. *

* I will loop through each entry in the array and when I encounter an E then I will *

* pass a subset of my array starting from position 0 to the location of the E. I *

* will send this subset to my function to get the lowest value. I will collect all *

* of the lowest values in an array. When finished I will convert array to string.

* *

* Steps for solution *

* 1) Initialize var subset and min *

* 2) Create function that sorts an array in asc order and returns lowest value *

* 3) Store lowest value in an array *

* 4) Convert array into a string and return as answer *

* *

***************************************************************************************/

function OffLineMinimum(strArr) {

var subset = [], min = 0;

function findMin (arr) { return arr.sort(function (a,b) {return Number(a)-Number(b);})[0]; }

for (var i=0;i<strArr.length;i++) {

if (strArr[i] == "E") {

min = findMin(strArr.slice(0,i));

minIndex = strArr.slice(0,i).indexOf(min)

subset.push(Number(min));

strArr = strArr.slice(0,minIndex).concat(strArr.slice(minIndex+1,i)).concat(strArr.slice(i+1));

i-=2;

}

}

return subset.join(",");

}