What is the best way to get the minimum or maximum value from an Array of numbers?

Question

Let\'s say I have an Array of numbers: [2,3,3,4,2,2,5,6,7,2]

What is the best way to find the minimum or maximum value in that Array?

Right now,

Answer 1

There are a number of ways this can be done.

1. Brute force. Linear search for both min and max separately. (2N comparisons and 2N steps)
2. Iterate linearly and check each number for both min and max. (2N comparisons)
3. Use Divide and conquer. (Between 2N and 3N/2 comparisons)
4. Compare by pairs explained below (3N/2 Comparisons)

How to find max. and min. in array using minimum comparisons?

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If you are really paranoid about speed, runtime & number of comparisons, also refer to http://www.geeksforgeeks.org/maximum-and-minimum-in-an-array/