Python: Rescale and shift numbers so that they cover the range [0, 1]

Last update on May 30 2025 11:49:57 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

Rescale List to [0,1]

Write a Python program to rescale and shift numbers in a given list, so that they cover the range [0, 1].

Input:
[18.5, 17.0, 18.0, 19.0, 18.0]
Output:
[0.75, 0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 0.5]

Input:
[13.0, 17.0, 17.0, 15.5, 2.94]
Output:
[0.7155049786628734, 1.0, 1.0, 0.8933143669985776, 0.0]

Visual Presentation:

Sample Solution:

Python Code:

# Define a function named 'test' that takes a list 'nums' as input
def test(nums):
    # Find the minimum and maximum values in the list and assign them to variables 'a' and 'b'
    a = min(nums)
    b = max(nums)
    
    # Check if the range between the minimum and maximum values is zero
    if b - a == 0:
        # If the range is zero, return a list with 0.0 as the first element and 1.0 for the remaining elements
        return [0.0] + [1.0] * (len(nums) - 1)
    
    # Iterate over the indices of the list
    for i in range(len(nums)):
        # Rescale and shift each element in the list to cover the range [0, 1]
        nums[i] = (nums[i] - a) / (b - a)
    
    # Return the modified list
    return nums

# Assign a specific list of numbers 'nums' to the variable
nums = [18.5, 17.0, 18.0, 19.0, 18.0]

# Print a message indicating the operation to be performed
print("Original list:")

# Print the original list of numbers
print(nums)

# Print a message indicating the operation to be performed
print("Rescale and shift the numbers of the said list so that they cover the range [0, 1]:")

# Print the result of the test function applied to the 'nums' list
print(test(nums))

# Assign another specific list of numbers 'nums' to the variable
nums = [13.0, 17.0, 17.0, 15.5, 2.94]

# Print a message indicating the operation to be performed
print("\nOriginal list:")

# Print the original list of numbers
print(nums)

# Print a message indicating the operation to be performed
print("Rescale and shift the numbers of the said list so that they cover the range [0, 1]:")

# Print the result of the test function applied to the 'nums' list
print(test(nums))

Sample Output:

Original list:
[18.5, 17.0, 18.0, 19.0, 18.0]
Rescale and shift the numbers of the said list so that they cover the range [0, 1]:
[0.75, 0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 0.5]

Original list:
[13.0, 17.0, 17.0, 15.5, 2.94]
Rescale and shift the numbers of the said list so that they cover the range [0, 1]:
[0.7155049786628734, 1.0, 1.0, 0.8933143669985776, 0.0]

Flowchart:

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

• Write a Python program to normalize a list of numbers so that the smallest value becomes 0 and the largest becomes 1.
• Write a Python program to shift and scale an array of numbers into the range [0,1] using min-max normalization.
• Write a Python program to rescale a list of values to the [0,1] interval using list comprehension and arithmetic operations.
• Write a Python program to compute the normalized version of a list by subtracting the minimum and dividing by the range.

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