Finding the closest value from a list

Is there a way to put a ton of values in a list, set another stand-alone value, and then find out which item in the list's value is closest to the stand-alone? In the end I'll be using this method to find the closest location from a list of locations, but for now a simple example using "int" values will do, just so I can grasp the concept of what needs to be done. Thanks!