Invitation to Computer Science 8th Edition

Published by Cengage Learning
ISBN 10: 1337561916
ISBN 13: 978-1-33756-191-4

Chapter 2 - Exercises - Page 87: 17a

Answer

Changing the original sign from the algorithm to the greater or equal sign will not change the output of the algorithm. It will still find us the largest element in the list. The only difference will be that if it so happens that some values occur more than once and the algorithm encounters the same value as the stored largest so far it will assign that value to it. But the values would be the same so it would be just an extra computational step.

Work Step by Step

Changing the original sign from the algorithm to the greater or equal sign will not change the output of the algorithm. It will still find us the largest element in the list. The only difference will be that if it so happens that some values occur more than once and the algorithm encounters the same value as the stored largest so far it will assign that value to it. But the values would be the same so it would be just an extra computational step.
Update this answer!

You can help us out by revising, improving and updating this answer.

Update this answer

After you claim an answer you’ll have 24 hours to send in a draft. An editor will review the submission and either publish your submission or provide feedback.