Closet entity from a table of entities?

[Dreken]

What is the most efficient way to find the closest entity to a player, from a table of entities?

[MakeR]

[lua]local plypos = ply:GetPos()
local dist, ent = math.huge
for _, v in ipairs( table_of_ents ) do
local vdist = (v:GetPos() - plypos):LengthSqr()
if vdist < dist then
dist = vdist
ent = v
end
end[/lua]

Obviously, replace ply with the player and table_of_ents with your table of entities.

[Pugsworth]

[QUOTE=Dreken;41794450]What is the most efficient way to find the closest entity to a player, from a table of entities?[/QUOTE]

If exact units doesn't matter and you just want to know which has the smallest value, you can use LengthSqr()

[lua](dest - currentpos):LengthSqr()[/lua]

You would use LengthSqr in this situation because it's cheaper than Distance, but still gives a value that's relative to distance.

[Bletotum]

Why does distance do things in a more slow manner? Is it just that perhaps Distance() is handled in lua, and LengthSqr() in C++?

If not, why not just override Distance()?

[lua]
local vec = FindMetaTable("Vector")
function vec:Distance(vect)
return (vect-self):LengthSqr()
end
[/lua]

[Pugsworth]

[QUOTE=Bletotum;41794835]Why does distance do things in a more slow manner? Is it just that perhaps Distance() is handled in lua, and LengthSqr() in C++?

If not, why not just override Distance()?

[lua]
local vec = FindMetaTable("Vector")
function vec:Distance(vect)
return (vect-self):LengthSqr()
end
[/lua][/QUOTE]

Because distance uses sqaure root to get the real, euclidean, distance. But square root is expensive.

[MakeR]

[QUOTE=Bletotum;41794835]If not, why not just override Distance()?

[lua]
local vec = FindMetaTable("Vector")
function vec:Distance(vect)
return (vect-self):LengthSqr()
end
[/lua][/QUOTE]

This wouldn't return the same value. LengthSqr returns the square of the distance.