Arrays and Iteration

Find Maximum

Scan the array once, keeping the largest value seen so far. The replay highlights when a candidate replaces the running maximum.

Algorithm

Basic Implementation

basic.pl 
use strict;
use warnings;
my @arr = (3, 1, 4, 1, 5, 9, 2, 6);
my $best = $arr[0];
for (my $i = 1; $i < @arr; $i++) {
	if ($arr[$i] > $best) {
		$best = $arr[$i];
	}
}
print "$best\n";

Complexity

  • Time: O(n)
  • Space: O(1)

Implementation notes

  • Keep the explicit control flow. Library shortcuts would hide the state changes this lesson is meant to replay.
  • The final output is intentionally small and deterministic for cross-language comparison.
execution replay The checked-in replay follows the language-neutral state table for `array-find-max`.
cross-language comparison This Perl DSA version keeps the same data and final output as every other DSA book in this wave.