how to find maximum or minimum element in a matrix?

example

a=5 b=8 c=2 d=6

x=[a b c d]

how to find minimum or maximum element of matrix x? the answer i want is its variable not its value. so the answer here is b and not 8

Answer 1

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

a=5;b=8;c=2;d=6
x=[a b c d];
y={'a','b','c','d'};
[c1,idx1]=max(x);
[c2,idx2]=min(x);
max_x=y{idx1}
minx_x=y{idx2}

Answer 2

[Walter Roberson]

function varname = max_of_vars(varargin)
  [val, idx] = max([varargin{:}]);
  varname = inputname(idx);
end
function varname = min_of_vars(varargin)
  [val, idx] = min([varargin{:}]);
  varname = inputname(idx);
end

Example:

a=5;b=8;c=2;d=6
max_of_vars(a, b, c, d)
min_of_vars(a, b, c, d)

This code is generalized to any number of variables, provided that each of them is scalar. If an expression is passed instead of a variable and that expression happens to be the maximum, then the empty string '' will be returned.

Answer 3

[Sachin Ganjare]

you can use min() & max() functions