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I have a list 

a={1,2,3,4,5}

I want to calculate absolute differences of each element with all other elements 

 b={{0,1,2,3,4},{1,0,1,2,3},{2,1,0,1,2},{3,2,1,0,1},{4,3,2,1,0}}

and then calculate the total for each subarray

  c={10,7,6,7,10}

I want to write it in one line basically, need help here

 b=[#1-a]&/@a  isn't working.

Do someone has an easy way to write it out, instead of using any module loop? thanks in advance

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    $\begingroup$ What are those naked square brackets for? [] used for passing arguments to functions (e.g. Abs), you almost got it: Abs[#1 - a] & /@ a. $\endgroup$
    – swish
    May 10, 2017 at 17:02
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    $\begingroup$ I hope that you're just running an experiment in trying to learn Mathematica, because what you're trying to do is already implemented as a function: CentralFeature[a]. For graphs it's GraphCenter[g] and for geometric data SpatialMedian[a] (not necessarily a point in your set, though in your example it would have been 3). $\endgroup$
    – Gregory Klopper
    May 12, 2017 at 16:27

6 Answers 6

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Total@Outer[Abs[#1 - #2] &, a, a]
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  • $\begingroup$ I voted this one for this is the simplest!ddd $\endgroup$
    – user1470393
    May 10, 2017 at 18:35
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks. I went through several alternatives but liked it best myself! Outer is extremely powerful. $\endgroup$
    – David G. Stork
    May 10, 2017 at 18:36
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Total[DistanceMatrix[a]]

...too short to be an acceptable answer (minimum is 30 characters) without some meaningless commentary

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is this code golf? (cause I lost...)

s=Length@a;Plus@@Table[Abs[a[[i]]-a[[j]]],{j, s},{i, s}]
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  • $\begingroup$ You didn't complete the task, which is to calculate the total of each sub-array. $\endgroup$
    – David G. Stork
    May 10, 2017 at 17:08
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    $\begingroup$ you are right! I "totally" forgot it $\endgroup$
    – ZaMoC
    May 10, 2017 at 17:12
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Avoid 1 loop:

 Total[Abs[a - # & /@ a]]

Avoid both loops:

 Total[Abs[ConstantArray[a, Length[a]] - a]]
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(*Method 1*)
Total@Outer[Abs@*Plus, a, -a]

(*Method 2*)
Permutations[a, {2}]. {1, -1} // Plus @@@ Abs@Partition[#, 4] &
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Distribute[{{a}, a}, List, List, List, Total@Abs[#1 - #2] &]

{10, 7, 6, 7, 10}

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