Retrieve the two highest item from a list containing 100,000 integers

Question

How can retrieve the two highest item from a list containing 100,000 integers without having to sort the entire list first?

Answer 1

Copy your List to List_copy. Retrieve the highest value and get its position by:

Highest_value = max(List_copy)
Highest_position = List_copy.index(max(List_copy))

Assign 0 to the Highest_value.

List_copy[Highest_position] = 0

And run your line again.

Second_Highest = max(List_copy)