Find k number of array elements having the minimum difference amongst themselves

Question

So basically I have an array of n integers (positive only). I want to have k number of integers from this array into a separate array (k<n) such that the difference between these k numbers is the minimum amongst every other k pairs of integers in an array.

If k is 1, I just need to return the max integer of the array.

I want to implement this in JavaScript. I understand how to run this problem for the values k=1 and k=2 . But I don't grasp the general concept of this problem.

For eg:

Array = [6,22,21,63,99,77]

I sorted this array in ascending order. After this I don't understand how to proceed further.

Answer 1

After sorting the array it becomes similar to a sliding window problem.

Run a loop from i=0 to nk and check the following.

Find the minimum difference between arr[i+k] and arr[i] . The index at which this occurs is your subset of k integers you want. You can check this link for more details and coding help.