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In Java you can find maximum or minimum value in a numeric array by looping through the array. Here is the code to do that.

public static int getMaxValue(int[] numbers){
  int maxValue = numbers[0];
  for(int i=1;i < numbers.length;i++){
    if(numbers[i] > maxValue){
	  maxValue = numbers[i];
	}
  }
  return maxValue;
}

public static int getMinValue(int[] numbers){
  int minValue = numbers[0];
  for(int i=1;i<numbers.length;i++){
    if(numbers[i] < minValue){
	  minValue = numbers[i];
	}
  }
  return minValue;
}

These are very straight forward methods to get maximum or minimum value of an array but there is a more cleaner way to do this.

int[] nums={6,-1,-2,-3,0,1,2,3,4};
Arrays.sort(nums);
System.out.println("Minimum = " + nums[0]);
System.out.println("Maximum = " + nums[nums.length-1]);

You cannot make it more simpler than this. You will need to import java.util.* to use Arrays class.

Yet another way to get these values is using recursion. Today someone asked me about this and after thinking for few minutes I came up with following solution.

	public static int getMax(int[] numbers, int a, int n){
  return a>=numbers.length?n:Math.max(n,max(numbers,a+1,numbers[a]>n?numbers[a]:n));
  }
 private static int getMin(int[] numbers, int a, int n) {
     return a==numbers.length?n:Math.min(n,min(numbers,a+1,numbers[a]<n?numbers[a]:n));
    }

Here is an executable Java class demonstrating the use of all three method.

  import java.util.Arrays;
  public class MinMaxValues{

	public static void main (String args[]){
	   int numbers[]= {1,5,-9,12,-3,89, 18,23,4,-6};
	   //Find minimum (lowest) value in array using loop
	   System.out.println("Minimum Value = " + getMinValue(numbers));
	   //Find maximum (largest) value in array using loop
	   System.out.println("Maximum Value = " + getMaxValue(numbers));

	    //Find minimum (lowest) value in array by sorting array
	   System.out.println("Minimum Value = " + minValue(numbers));
	   //Find maximum (largest) value in array by sorting array
	   System.out.println("Maximum Value = " + maxValue(numbers));

	   //Find minimum (lowest) value in array using recursion
	   System.out.println("Minimum Value = " + getMin(numbers,0,numbers[0]));

	   //Find maximum (largest) value in array using recursion
	   System.out.println("Maximum Value = " + getMax(numbers,0,numbers[0]));

	}

	//Find maximum (largest) value in array using loop
	public static int getMaxValue(int[] numbers){
		int maxValue = numbers[0];
		for(int i=1;i<numbers.length;i++){
			if(numbers[i] > maxValue){
				maxValue = numbers[i];
			}
		}
		return maxValue;
	}

	//Find minimum (lowest) value in array using loop
	public static int getMinValue(int[] numbers){
		int minValue = numbers[0];
		for(int i=1;i<numbers.length;i++){
			if(numbers[i] < minValue){
				minValue = numbers[i];
			}
		}
		return minValue;
	}

	//Find minimum (lowest) value in array using array sort
	public static int minValue(int[] numbers){
	  Arrays.sort(numbers);
	  return numbers[0];
	}

	//Find maximum (largest) value in array using array sort
	public static int maxValue(int[] numbers){
	  Arrays.sort(numbers);
	  return numbers[numbers.length-1];
	}

	//Find maximum (largest) value in array using recursion
	public static int getMax(int[] numbers, int a, int n){
		return a>=numbers.length?n:Math.max(n,getMax(numbers,a+1,numbers[a]>n?numbers[a]:n));
	}

	//Find minimum (lowest) value in array using recursion
	private static int getMin(int[] numbers, int a, int n) {
     return a==numbers.length?n:Math.min(n,getMin(numbers,a+1,numbers[a]<n?numbers[a]:n));
    }

}

So which method do you like the most?

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