Max function on colored data?

Questions
1

Hi all, I have a quick question. Assume I have a data like

  data = {1, 2, 5, 3, 4, 7, 6};

and want to change the color of data

data2 = Table[Style[data[[i]], Red], {i, Length@data}]

Max@data2

Why does Max function not work on colored data? Sort works, for example. Is there any way to color the data and find max of new data?
Thanks in advance..

2

To see why use FullForm on both data and data2:

data // FullForm
(* List[1, 2, 5, 3, 4, 7, 6] *)

data2 // FullForm
(* List[Style[1, RGBColor[1, 0, 0]], Style[2, RGBColor[1, 0, 0]],  
  Style[5, RGBColor[1, 0, 0]], Style[3, RGBColor[1, 0, 0]], 
  Style[4, RGBColor[1, 0, 0]], Style[7, RGBColor[1, 0, 0]], 
  Style[6, RGBColor[1, 0, 0]]] *)

data2 is not a list of numbers.

3

As Jim stated, they are not a list of numbers,

You can separate the parts of the list into two columns, the first containing the actual number (the one you want to sort) and the other containing the color:

In[1]:= data2[[All, 1]]
Out[1]:= {1, 2, 5, 3, 4, 7, 6}

In[2]:= data2[[All, 2]]
Out[2]:= {RGBColor[1, 0, 0], RGBColor[1, 0, 0], RGBColor[1, 0, 0], RGBColor[
 1, 0, 0], RGBColor[1, 0, 0], RGBColor[1, 0, 0], RGBColor[1, 0, 0]}

colorrow.png

The function MaximalBy allows you to specify a function the result of which will be the basis for your maximum, you can write:

MaximalBy[data2, First]

Which is equivalent to:

MaximalBy[data2, #[[1]]&]

i.e. it finds the maximum by looking at the first entry of each row (this is where you keep your values). Similarly, you can use SortBy to sort your colored lists.

Regards, Patrik

4

I see now, thanks..