How do I check if any element in a list is positive?

Question

As a simple example of what I would like to do, suppose I have a list a of all real numbers. I would like to perform a simple check to see if some element of a is positive. Of course, I could do this with a simple loop, but I feel as if Mathematica would have a more efficient way of doing this, in the spirit of functional programming. Is there, or do I just have to do this with a clumsy loop:

test=False; For[counter=1;counter<=Length[a];counter++;If[a[[counter]]>0,test=True;];];

Answer 1

If I understand you correctly, simply test if the maximum value in the list is Positive:

Positive @ Max @ a

Speed comparison with other methods that were posted:

timeAvg = 
  Function[func,
    Do[If[# > 0.3, Return[#/5^i]] & @@ Timing@Do[func, {5^i}], {i, 0, 15}],
    HoldFirst];

a = RandomInteger[{-1*^7, 2}, 1*^7];

MemberQ[a, _?Positive] // timeAvg

Total@UnitStep[-a] =!= Length@a // timeAvg

Positive@Max@a // timeAvg

0.593

0.0624

0.01148

Answer 2

I think the canonical way would be to use an "any" function which you can find in this question. Using a variant of my answer, you can use

MemberQ[list, _?Positive]

to check if any element is positive.

Answer 3

l = RandomChoice[Range[-100, 1], 50];

Simplest to understand is

Or @@ Positive[l]

Perhaps faster for long lists is

Total@UnitStep[-l] =!= Length@l

Answer 4

The fastest I could come up with, using the undocumented Compile`GetElement for indexing (it's the fastest even without):

f = Compile[
  {{l, _Integer, 1}},
  Module[
   {max = -1},
   Do[
    If[max < Compile`GetElement[l, i], max = Compile`GetElement[l, i]],
    {i, 1, Length@l}];
   max > 0
   ],
  CompilationTarget -> "C"
  ]

Using timeAvg from Mr.Wizard's answer,

MemberQ[a, _?Positive] // timeAvg
Total@UnitStep[-a] =!= Length@a // timeAvg
Positive@Max@a // timeAvg
f[a] // timeAvg
(*
1.38034
0.114101
0.0187749
0.00830531
*)

Answer 5

To add a bit variety, you could try:

l = RandomChoice[Range[-100, 1], 5000000];

Tr[Clip[l, {0, Infinity}]] > 0

The timing for different methods of input shows that, unsurprisingly, some solutions are very dependent on the average number of positive elements and others not so much. @Mr.Wizard´s Positive@Max@a and @acl´s compiled f[a] seem to win every time.

f = Compile[{{l, _Integer, 1}}, 
   Module[{max = -1}, 
    Do[If[max < Compile`GetElement[l, i], 
      max = Compile`GetElement[l, i]], {i, 1, Length@l}];
    max > 0], CompilationTarget -> "C"];

timeAvg = 
  Function[func, 
   Do[If[# > 0.3, Return[#/5^i]] & @@ Timing@Do[func, {5^i}], {i, 0, 
     15}], HoldFirst];

a = RandomInteger[{-1*^7, 1}, 1*^7];

MemberQ[a, _?Positive] // timeAvg
Or @@ Positive[a] // timeAvg
Total@UnitStep[-a] =!= Length@a // timeAvg
Tr[Clip[a, {0, Infinity}]] > 0 // timeAvg
Positive@Max@a // timeAvg
f[a] // timeAvg

4.072   
0.546     
0.0716     
0.04056     
0.01748     
0.01048

a = RandomInteger[{-1*^7, 1*^7}, 1*^7];

MemberQ[a, _?Positive] // timeAvg
Or @@ Positive[a] // timeAvg
Total@UnitStep[-a] =!= Length@a // timeAvg
Tr[Clip[a, {0, Infinity}]] > 0 // timeAvg
Positive@Max@a // timeAvg
f[a] // timeAvg

0.561     
0.359     
0.078     
1.748     
0.01684     
0.01048

Answer 6

This is even faster than acl's code, for data with positive elements appearing early on, because it stops as soon as it finds a positive.

ff = Compile[{{l, _Real, 1}},
Module[{i = 1, n = Length@l},
While[Compile`GetElement[l, i] <= 0. && i <= n, i = i + 1];
i <= n], "RuntimeOptions" -> "Speed", CompilationTarget -> "C"];

Since the OP specifies real numbers I've changed acl's function to take reals:

f = Compile[{{l, _Real, 1}}, 
Module[{max = -1.},
Do[If[max < Compile`GetElement[l, i], max = Compile`GetElement[l, i]], {i, 1, Length@l}];
max > 0], "RuntimeOptions" -> "Speed", CompilationTarget -> "C"];

Here is some timing data where I've inserted a single positive element into the list at varying positions:

b = RandomReal[{-1*^7, 0}, 1*^7];

timedata = Table[
a = b; a[[10^j]] = 1.0; {10^j,
{MemberQ[a, _?Positive] // timeAvg,
Total@UnitStep[-a] =!= Length@a // timeAvg,
Positive@Max@a // timeAvg,
f[a] // timeAvg,
ff[a] // timeAvg}}
, {j, 1, 7}];

ListLogLogPlot[Transpose[Thread /@ timedata], Joined -> True]