Solution 6-1

Here is a suggested solution for Étude 6-1.

stats.erl

%% @author J D Eisenberg <jdavid.eisenberg@gmail.com>
%% @doc Functions for calculating basic statistics on a list of numbers.
%% @copyright 2013 J D Eisenberg
%% @version 0.1

-module(stats).
-export([minimum/1]).

%% @doc Returns the minimum item in a list of numbers. Fails when given
%% an empty list, as there's nothing reasonable to return.

-spec(minimum(list(number())) -> number()).

minimum(NumberList) ->
  minimum(NumberList, hd(NumberList)).

minimum([], Result) -> Result;

minimum([Head|Tail], Result) ->
  case Head < Result of
    true -> minimum(Tail, Head);
    false -> minimum(Tail, Result)
  end.

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