Out of the loop

And another example that shows off pattern matching:

Procedural:

int minimumElement(int[] array)
{
    if(array.size() == 0)
    {
        return 0;
    }

    int minimum = array[1];
    for(int i = 1; i < array.size(); i++)
    {
        if(array[i] < minimum)
        {
            minimum = array[i];
        }
    }
    return minimum;
}

Functional (still, no specific language, just an example of what it might look like):

int min(int a, int b) => a < b ? a : b;
int minimumElement(int[] array) =>
    array match {
        [firstElement, ...rest] => min(firstElement, getMinimumElement(rest));
        [singleElement] =>singleElement;
        [] => 0;
    }