Find the 2nd largest element in an array with minimum number of comparisons

Question

For an array of size N, what is the number of comparisons required?

Answer 1

case 1-->9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
case 2--> 50 10 8 25 ........
case 3--> 50 50 10 8 25.........
case 4--> 50 50 10 8 50 25.......

public void second element()  
{
      int a[10],i,max1,max2;  
      max1=a[0],max2=a[1];  
      for(i=1;imax1)  
          {
             max2=max1;  
             max1=a[i];  
          }  
         else if(a[i]>max2 &&a[i]!=max1)  
           max2=a[i];  
         else if(max1==max2)  
           max2=a[i];  
      }  
}