else if statement prevents program from detecting greatest index [closed] - c

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The purpose of this program is to detect the maximum number in a named array. Currently, however it only detects the last digit of the array. If the else if is removed or commented out, then it works correctly detecting all but the last digit.
#include <stdio.h>
int main(){
int c,i,max;
printf("Enter the size of the array.");
scanf("%d",&c);
int array[c];
printf("Enter the integers to fill the array.\n");
for(i=0;i<c;i++){
scanf("%d",&array[i]);
}//end for
int last_element = array[c-1];
for(i=0;i<c;i++){
printf("%d",array[i]);
if(array[i-1] > array[i]) //This if statement detects greatest
{ //index of array for all but last index
max = array[i-1];
}//end if
else if(last_element > array[i-1]) //This else if detects greatest
{ //index of array in last index
max = last_element; //This statement is always eval
}//end if //uating true.
}//end for
printf("\n%d",max);
return 0;
}//end main

Answer 1

largest = array[0]; //consider your 1st element as largest element
for (i = 1; i < size; i++) //
{
if (largest < array[i]) //compare largest element with i'th element
largest = array[i]; //if it is, make i'th element as largest
}
printf("\n largest element present in the given array is : %d", largest);
try this

Answer 2

Going point by point for error corrections :
for(i=1;i<c;i++) i needs to be set to 1. So that when you do array[i-1] , it starts from i = 1 such that, array[1-1] happens.
Otherwise if i is set to 0 then it will turn out to array[0-1]
,i.e, array[-1], since this value is not defined, it could point to
any value in stack memory.
if(array[i-1] > array[i]) This if statment simply checks, if a previous value is greater than its next value, i.e, if an array 1 2 3
4 5 6 7 is there, it would only see. if (array[0]>array[1] ) , then
if(array[1] > array[2] ). In the example array, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ,
which is ascending order, it would never enter the if condition.
Since, 1 > 2 is not true. 2 > 3 is not true, and so on. Hence the
correct way of checking it would be, to check the current array index
with the existing max value. i.e,
if(array[i-1] > max) { max = array[i-1] ;} This would keep replacing
the max value if a bigger number is encountered. And then check the
next number with the max.
else if(last_element > array[i-1]) //This else if detects greatest
{ //index of array in last index
max = last_element; //This statement is always eval
}//end if //uating true.
}//end for
Now this would again be a wrong statement. Consider the example array
5 4 3 2 1' .Here the last element is always smaller than
array[i-1]`, that means last element is always smaller than all
previous elements. So this condition would never be entered.
FINALLY, Correct code: declare a variable int max = 0 Such that, if
array[i]>max, then max value is replaced to that array's value. And
then the next array value is checked with the newly declared max.
int max =0;
for(int i=0; i<c; i++){
if(array[i] > max){
max=array[i];
}
}