Find Largest Element in an Array

Understanding Finding Largest Element

Finding the largest element in an array involves scanning the array and keeping track of the maximum value encountered.

We will explore three different methods to find the largest element in an array using C.

Method 1: Using Iteration

This method iterates through the array and finds the largest element.

#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
    int arr[] = {10, 20, 4, 45, 99, 23};
    int n = sizeof(arr)/sizeof(arr[0]);
    int max = arr[0];
    for (int i = 1; i < n; i++) {
        if (arr[i] > max) {
            max = arr[i];
        }
    }
    printf("Largest element: %d", max);
    return 0;
}
            

Method 2: Using Sorting

This method sorts the array and takes the last element as the largest.

#include <stdio.h>
void sort(int arr[], int n) {
    for (int i = 0; i < n-1; i++) {
        for (int j = 0; j < n-i-1; j++) {
            if (arr[j] > arr[j+1]) {
                int temp = arr[j];
                arr[j] = arr[j+1];
                arr[j+1] = temp;
            }
        }
    }
}
int main() {
    int arr[] = {10, 20, 4, 45, 99, 23};
    int n = sizeof(arr)/sizeof(arr[0]);
    sort(arr, n);
    printf("Largest element: %d", arr[n-1]);
    return 0;
}
            

Method 3: Using Recursion

This method finds the largest element using recursion.

#include <stdio.h>
int findMax(int arr[], int n) {
    if (n == 1) return arr[0];
    int max = findMax(arr, n-1);
    return (arr[n-1] > max) ? arr[n-1] : max;
}
int main() {
    int arr[] = {10, 20, 4, 45, 99, 23};
    int n = sizeof(arr)/sizeof(arr[0]);
    printf("Largest element: %d", findMax(arr, n));
    return 0;
}