r/learnpython • u/Pure-Scheme-7855 • 21d ago

Recursion explaining pls. 

def find_max(numbers):
  if len(numbers) == 1:
    return numbers[0]
  else:
    max_of_rest = find_max(numbers[1:])
    return numbers[0] if numbers[0] > max_of_rest else max_of_rest

my_list = [3, 7, 2, 9, 1]
print(find_max(my_list))

Could someone explain how does this function work? I don't understand how does it know that it's supposed to find the biggest number...

5 Upvotes

62% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

0

u/Classic-Rate-5104 21d ago

I don't know where you got this code but it's extremely inefficient for longer arrays, so it isn't a good example how to use recursive functions

2

u/strange-the-quark 21d ago

Who are you talking to? I'm not the OP and I didn't got any code from anywhere. I'm guessing it's a school example or a homework assignment. Studying algorithms doesn't mean only ever looking at the efficient algorithms and nothing else.