added missing search module

Author: iskandr

pyensembl/search.py

@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+"""
+Helper functions for searching over collections of PyEnsembl objects
+"""
+
+def find_nearest_locus(start, end, loci):
+    """
+    Finds nearest locus (object with method `distance_to_interval`) to the
+    interval defined by the given `start` and `end` positions.
+    Returns the distance to that locus, along with the locus object itself.
+    """
+    best_distance = float("inf")
+    best_locus = None
+    for locus in loci:
+        distance = locus.distance_to_interval(start, end)
+
+        if best_distance > distance:
+            best_distance = distance
+            best_locus = locus
+
+    return best_distance, best_locus