finding the closest floating point number in a list

[Skaperen]

i learn things when i need them. things stay with me better that way. i haven't needed numpy, yet. of course, the disadvantage is that i won't know there's a solution in there. but i won't know that if i never use it, either. so i wait until i have a real need or at least a way to use it in my current project. i remember a new friend a few years ago told me i should try python, and that i'd love it. my next project was a script to login to the main router and pull down the configuration. so i tried it in python using the pexpect module. my friend was right.