Tool to find the maximum value in a list of numbers, that is to say the largest possible value approaching plus infinity (if the numbers are positive) or 0 (if numbers are negative).
Maximum of a List - dCode
Tag(s) : Data Processing
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To find the biggest value (the maximum) among a list of numbers, go through the whole list of numbers and compare each values. The maximum in the list is the largest value found when all values have been compared.
Example: The list of 4 values: 6,4,8,2 has for maximum 8 (and for minimum 2)
For positive values, the maximum is the value closest to $ +\infty $ (plus infinity) and for negative values the maximum is the value that is closest to $ 0 $.
A naive algorithm for calculating a maximum of a list A of $ n $ integers is:function max(list) {
max = list[0]
for i = 1 , i < n {
if list[i] > max {
max = list[i]
}
}
return max
}
The algo complexity is of order $ n $, as there are $ n - 1 $ comparisons made, and at most $ n $ assignments made in the worst case, (if the table is sorted by ascending order) and in the best case only 1 assignment made (if the maximum is the first value in the list).
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