I have a list of numbers in a hash array "num" and need to be able to look up the number that is closest to a given input number, "x". In other words:
$num{'15'}=1; $num{'20'}=2; $num{'25'}=3; $num{'30'}=4; $x=28;
How would I write code to return the number 4 given x=28? Or alternatively if x=16 then I would return 2. I also need to return the higher number if x falls in between two numbers. The only way solution I can think of is to use if statements, but I will have about a dozen numbers in the hash and writing if statements would take a while.

Thanks.

In reply to List of Numbers by Anonymous Monk

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