Make sure to handle cases where there are multiple largest numbers or no largest numbers at all. Use clear variable names, comments, and indentation for readability.
Here’s a Python program that finds the largest number in a list using a loop:
# Define function to find largest number in a list of integers
def find_largest(numbers):
# Initialize variable for largest number as first element in list
largest = numbers[0] # Set largest to first element in list
# Loop through remaining elements in list and update largest if necessary
for num in numbers[1:]: # Loop through remaining elements in list starting from second element
if num > largest: # Check if current element is larger than current largest
largest = num # If so, update largest to current element
# Return the largest number found
return largest # Return the final largest number found
To handle cases where there are multiple largest numbers or no largest numbers at all, we can modify this function to return a list of all the largest numbers instead. Here’s an updated version that does just that:
# Define function to find all largest numbers in a list of integers
def find_largest(numbers):
# Initialize variable for largest number as first element in list
largest = numbers[0] # Set largest to first element in list
# Loop through remaining elements in list and update largest if necessary
for num in numbers[1:]: # Loop through remaining elements in list, starting from second element
if num > largest: # Check if current element is larger than current largest
largest = num # If so, update largest to current element
# Create an empty list to store all the largest numbers found
max_list = []
# Loop through original list again, adding any elements that are equal to the current largest number
for num in numbers: # Loop through original list
if num == largest: # Check if current element is equal to current largest
max_list.append(num) # If so, add it to max_list
# Return a list of all the largest numbers found
return max_list # Return max_list containing all largest numbers found
In this updated version, we first find the largest number as before using a loop and an `if` statement to update the variable `largest`. Then, we create an empty list called `max_list` that will store any elements in the original list that are equal to the current largest number. Finally, we loop through the original list again, adding any elements that match the current largest number using another `if` statement and the append method of lists.
This updated function returns a list containing all the largest numbers found instead of just one. If there is only one largest number in the list, this will still return a list with that single element. However, if there are multiple largest numbers or no largest numbers at all (i.e., every element in the list is smaller than the first), then this function will return an empty list instead of raising any errors or exceptions.