logical error in Linear interpolation in python

Question

My linear interpolation has some logical error, it works for certain cases but not completely working.

I have tried to use different way to write the logic for the cases of extrapolation.

def interpolate(x, y, x_test):
    for i in range(len(x)):
        if x[i] > x_test:   #extrapolated condition: when the largest value of
            x_below = i - 1 #list x is greater than x_test 
            x_above = i 
            y_below = i - 1
            y_above = i
            break
        elif x[i] < x_test: #extrapolated condition: when the largest value of 
            x_below = i + 1 #list x is greater than x_test 
            x_above = i 
            y_below = i + 1
            y_above = i
            break                
        else:             #interpolated condition: when x_test lies between  
            return y[i]    #two sample points.

    #a = (yabove - ybelow) / (xabove - xbelow)         
    a = (y[y_above] - y[y_below]) / (x[x_above] - x[x_below])  
    #b = ybelow - a * xbelow
    b = y[y_below] - a * x[x_below]
    #y’ = a * x’ + b
    return a * x_test + b  

interpolate([1, 3, 5], [1, 9, 25], 5.0) I expect the output is 25, but the actual output is 17.0.

Answer 1

I think you are looking for something like this:

def interpolate(x, y, x_test):
    for i in range(len(x)):
        if x[i] > x_test:   #extrapolated condition: when the largest value of
            x_below = i - 1 #list x is greater than x_test
            x_above = i
            y_below = i - 1
            y_above = i
            continue # <---- I changed break to continue
        elif x[i] < x_test: #extrapolated condition: when the largest value of
            x_below = i + 1 #list x is greater than x_test
            x_above = i
            y_below = i + 1
            y_above = i
            continue # <---- I changed break to continue
        else:             #interpolated condition: when x_test lies between
            return y[i]    #two sample points.

    #a = (yabove - ybelow) / (xabove - xbelow)
    a = (y[y_above] - y[y_below]) / (x[x_above] - x[x_below])
    #b = ybelow - a * xbelow
    b = y[y_below] - a * x[x_below]
    #y’ = a * x’ + b
    return (a * x_test + b)

print(interpolate([1, 3, 5], [1, 9, 25], 5.0))

Output:

25

Notice, I changed the breaks to continues.