Compare two inputs based on closeness in value to a variable?

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to write a statement that compares two inputs to a number. Depending on which of them is closer to that number, a statement will use the closer variable that in a calculation.

So for example, I have two inputs from a GUI.

x = 44, and y = 52
Whichever one is closer to 51 will be used in an equation (i.e. y)

Does anyone know how I can accomplish this?

Thank you!

[rbme17]

I'm not sure why I didn't think of this earlier, but if anyone is interested, here's what I did.

if abs(x - 51) > abs(y - 51)
   z = y;
elseif abs(x - 51) < abs(y - 51)
  z = x;
end

z is then used later, so this ended up working out fine

[Aveek Podder]

If both x and y are equidistant from 51 then some error may rise:

if true
  if abs(x - 51) > abs(y - 51)
     z = y;
  else
     z = x;
  end
end

[John BG]

What about solving the equal distance ambiguity with for instance

   if abs(x - 51) > abs(y - 51) 
       z = y; 
   else 
       z=x
   end

   if abs(x - 51) == abs(y - 51) 
       z = [x y];
   end

[rbme17]

Thanks for your feedback! You're absolutely right, but this is actually being used in a GUI where I prevent x and y from being equal to each other with error messages and a break statement.