python 3.2 - find second smallest number in a list using recursion

Question

So I need to find the second smallest number within a list of integers using recursion but I cannot for the life of me devise a way to do it. I can do it with to find smalle

Answer 1

Here's an approach that doesn't blow the stack for large lists. It would be better to manage the search endpoints manually rather than using slicing which introduce copying.

import random

def min2(xs):
    if len(xs) < 3: return xs
    n = len(xs) // 2
    return sorted(min2(xs[:n]) + [xs[n]] + min2(xs[n+1:]))[:2]

tk = range(100000)
random.shuffle(tk)
print min2(tk)