Finding Largest and Smallest element from a list in python

In this article, I will provide you with functions for finding the largest and smallest element from a list in Python using two ways methods.

1. Without using the library function

2. Using library function

Without library Function

1. Finding the largest element from a list.

# Define a function called "largest_element" that takes a list "A" as input.
def largest_element(A):
    ''' Initialize a variable "largest" with the 
        first element of the list "A".
        This will act as a reference value and we asssume
        this varible to be largest which will be used to 
        compare other elements of list'''
        largest = A[0]

    # Iterate through each element "i" in the list "A".
    for i in A:
        # Check if the current element "i" is greater than the current largest element.
        if i > largest:
            # If "i" is greater, update the "largest" variable to "i".
            largest = i

    # Return the largest element found in the list.
    return largest

1. Finding the Smallest element from a list.

  def smallest_element(A):

# Initialize a variable "smallest" with the first element of the list "A".
    # We start with the first element because we assume the first element is the smallest initially.
    smallest = A[0]

    # Iterate through each element "i" in the list "A".
    for i in A:
        # Check if the current element "i" is smaller than the current smallest element.
        if i < smallest:
            # If "i" is smaller, update the "smallest" variable to "i".
            smallest = i


    return smallest

Using Library Function.

Using the max and min functions we find the largest and smallest elements respectively.

trial_list = [1,4,5,7,8,9,0]

min_value  = min(trial_list) # returns 0 
max_value  = max(trial_list) # returns 9