Find elements' indices with maximum difference between two lists

There are two lists

l1 = [1, 2.3, 1.4, 1.1]

l2 = [2.1, 0.9, 1.1, 3.2]

and I want to find the elements in the lists that have the maximum difference between the lists.

I.e.:

l1 = [1, 2.3, 1.4, 1.1] should return 0 for index 0 of the smallest number

l2 = [2.1, 0.9, 1.1, 3.2] should return 3 for index 3 of the highest number

>Solution :

Try this:

l1 = [1, 2.3, 1.4, 1.1]
l2 = [2.1, 0.9, 1.1, 3.2]


def max_diff(l1, l2):
    min_l1 = min(l1)
    max_l1 = max(l1)
    min_l2 = min(l2)
    max_l2 = max(l2)
    max_diff1 = max_l2 - min_l1
    max_diff2 = max_l1 - min_l2
    if max_diff1 > max_diff2:
        return l1.index(min_l1), l2.index(max_l2), max_diff1
    else:
        return l1.index(max_l1), l2.index(min_l2), max_diff2


l1_index, l2_index, max_diff = max_diff(l1, l2)
print(l1_index, l2_index, max_diff)  # 0 3 2.2

Note that this computes the max difference and can return either the (min(l1), max(l2)) or (max(l1), min(l2)) depending on the items in the list.