[R] Calculating Minimum Absolute Difference of Two Numeric Vectors

[Dario Strbenac]

Good day,

What is a fast and efficient way to calculate the minimum absolute difference between two vectors of numbers? The two vectors have unequal length. I would also like to know the index of the first vector and the second vector which results in the minimum absolute difference. For example:

x <- rpois(500, 100)
y <- rpois(300, 30)

Is there a much faster way than a nested for loop without resorting to Rcpp?

--------------------------------------
Dario Strbenac
University of Sydney
Camperdown NSW 2050
Australia