Function to determine list max without itertools

[Chris Angelico]

On Thu, Apr 18, 2019 at 9:31 AM Sayth Renshaw <flebber.crue at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> I have created a function that takes a list as an argument.
> Without using itertools I want to compare each item in the list to find the max.
>
> However instead of the max I keep getting the  last item in the list. Where is my logic wrong here?
>
> def maximum(listarg):
>     items = list(listarg)
>     myMax = 0
>     for index, item in enumerate(items):
>         for otheritem in items[index + 1 :]:
>             if item < otheritem:
>                 myMax = otheritem
>             elif item > otheritem:
>                 myMax = item
>             else:
>                 myMax = myMax
>
> Seems like it should work but doesn't.
>

I'd recommend rethinking your algorithm first, and then thinking about
debugging your actual code. You should be able to find the largest in
a collection without making many many passes over the items - a single
pass should be sufficient.

ChrisA