{"post":"

Suppose, if you have an array consisting of scores of a game, you might want to know which individual has secured the highest or the lowest position and what are the highest and the lowest scores.

Algorithm:

1. Assume the first element is the maximum or minimum.

2. Compare each element with the maximum or minimum.

3. If the element is greater than the maximum or smaller than the minimum, then change the value of the maximum or minimum accordingly.

4. Output the value of the maximum and/or minimum.

There are four methods using which we can write a program to find max or min element. They are as follows:

Without using functions
Using functions
Using pointer
Using in-built method

Technique 1: Basic without any functions

Logic:

The main logic for the first three techniques is the same, just the execution part is different. Here, we directly use the logic of maximum and minimum in main().

#include <iostream>\nusing namespace std;\n\n#define SIZE 50 // Defining max size of array\n\nint main()\n{\n    int array[SIZE];\n    int i, max, min, size;\n\n    // Input size of the array\n    cout << \"Enter size of the array: \";\n    cin >> size;\n\n    // Input array elements\n    cout << \"\\nEnter \" << size << \" elements in the array: \";\n    for (i = 0; i < size; i++)\n        cin >> array[i];\n\n    // Assume first element as maximum and minimum\n    max = array[0];\n    min = array[0];\n\n    // Find maximum and minimum in all array elements.\n    for (i = 1; i < size; i++)\n    {\n        // If current element is greater than max\n        if (array[i] > max)\n            max = array[i];\n\n        // If current element is smaller than min\n        if (array[i] < min)\n            min = array[i];\n    }\n\n    // Print maximum and minimum element\n    cout << \"\\nMaximum element =\" << max << \"\\n\";\n    cout << \"Minimum element =\" << min;\n\n    return 0;\n}\n\n

Output:

Enter the size of the array:\nEnter 3 elements in the array:\nMaximum element =63\nMinimum element =12\n

Technique 2: Using Functions

Here, we use two functions, one for finding the maximum number and the other for the minimum. We pass the array and the size of the array to functions as parameters. The main logic of the function is same as the previous one.

Code:

#include <iostream>\nusing namespace std;\n\nint FindMax(int a[], int n) // function to find largest element\n{\n    int i, max;\n    max = a[0]; // assume that first element is max\n    for (i = 1; i < n; i++)\n    {\n        if (a[i] > max) // if current element is greater than max\n            max = a[i]; // assign that number as max now\n    }\n    return max; // returns the largest number to main function\n}\n\nint FindMin(int a[], int n) // function to find smallest element\n{\n    int i, min;\n    min = a[0]; // assuming first element as minimum\n    for (i = 1; i < n; i++)\n    {\n        if (a[i] < min) // If current element is smaller than min\n            min = a[i]; // assigning the smaller number to min\n    }\n    return min; // returns the smallest number to main function\n}\n\nint main()\n{\n    int i, array[50], size, max, min;\n\n    cout << \"Input number of elements in array\\n\";\n    cin >> size;\n\n    cout << \"Enter \" << size << \" integers\\n\";\n    for (i = 0; i < size; i++)\n        cin >> array[i];\n\n    max = FindMax(array, size); // calls the max function\n    min = FindMin(array, size); // calls the min function\n\n    // Print maximum and minimum element\n    cout << \"Maximum element in the array is: \" << max << \"\\n\";\n    cout << \"Minimum element in the array is: \" << min << \"\\n\";\n\n    return 0;\n}\n\n

Output:

Input number of elements in array 3\nEnter 3 integers\nMaximum element in the array is:63\nMinimum element in the array is:12\n

Technique 3: Using Pointers

A pointer is just a name, that points to a certain position in the memory. The name of the array points to the address of its first element. Thus arrays and pointers use the same concept.

Algorithm:

Declare two pointers max and min.
max and min are made to point to the first element of the array.
Now we use “*” operator to access the value, where the pointer points.
Now, *max and *min, work similar to a normal variable containing max/min value of an array.
Next, we execute the same algorithm as used earlier.

Code:

#include <iostream>\nusing namespace std;\n\nint main()\n{\n    int array[50], *max, *min, size, i; // pointer variables declared for max and min\n\n    cout << \"Enter the number of elements in array\\n\";\n    cin >> size;\n    cout << \"Enter array elements\\n\";\n    for (i = 0; i < size; i++)\n        cin >> array[i];\n\n    max = array; // assigning max pointer to the address of the first element\n    min = array; // assigning min pointer to the address of the first element\n\n    for (i = 0; i < size; i++)\n    {\n        // Finding the largest element in the array\n        if (*(array + i) > *max) // check if the value stored at array+i is greater than value stored at max\n            *max = *(array + i);\n    }\n    cout << \"Maximum element in the array is \" << *max << \"\\n\";\n\n    for (i = 0; i < size; i++)\n    {\n        // Finding the smallest element in the array\n        if (*(array + i) < *min) // check if the value stored at array+i is lesser than value stored at min\n            *min = *(array + i);\n    }\n    cout << \"Minimum element in the array is \" << *min << \"\\n\";\n\n    return 0;\n}\n\n

Output:

Enter the number of elements in array 5\nEnter array elements 54 12 63 78 13\nMaximum element in the array is 78\nMinimum element in the array is12\n

Technique 4: Using Inbuilt max and min function

The syntax of the inbuilt method is:

ForwardIterator min_element (ForwardIterator first, ForwardIterator last);\n

where,

First ForwardIterator pointing to the beginning of the range.

Last ForwardIterator pointing to the end of the range.

And, it returns a pointer to the smallest element in the range, when there are more than one, it points to the first one. It points to the last element in case if the array is empty.

Code:

#include <iostream>\n#include <algorithm>\nusing namespace std;\n\nint main()\n{\n    int array[50], *maximum, *minimum, size, i; // pointer variables declared for max and min\n    cout << \"Enter the number of elements in array\\n\";\n    cin >> size;\n    // input for array elemets\n    cout << \"Enter array elements\\n\";\n    for (i = 0; i < size; i++)\n        cin >> array[i];\n    // minimum pointer points in the range from first element of array to last\n    // Returns the first one if more than one numbers\n    // are same\n    minimum = std::min_element(array, array + size);\n    cout << \"Minimum element in the array is \" << *minimum << \"\\n\";\n    // maximum pointer points in the range from first element of array to last\n    maximum = std::max_element(array, array + size);\n    cout << \"Maximum element in the array is \" << *maximum << \"\\n\";\n\n    return 0;\n}\n\n

Output:

Enter the number of elements in array 4\nEnter array elements 354 2642 245 754\nMinimum element in the array is 245\nMaximum element in the array is 2642\n

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