Max in array and its frequency - c

Question

How do you write a function that finds max value in an array as well as the number of times the value appears in the array?
We have to use recursion to solve this problem.
So far i am thinking it should be something like this:
int findMax(int[] a, int head, int last)
{
int max = 0;
if (head == last) {
return a[head];
}
else if (a[head] < a[last]) {
count ++;
return findMax(a, head + 1, last);
}
}
i am not sure if this will return the absolute highest value though, and im not exactly sure how to change what i have

Answer 1

Setting the initial value of max to INT_MIN solves a number of issues. #Rerito
But the approach OP uses iterates through each member of the array and incurs a recursive call for each element. So if the array had 1000 int there would be about 1000 nested calls.
A divide and conquer approach:
If the array length is 0 or 1, handle it. Else find the max answer from the 1st and second halves. Combine the results as appropriate. By dividing by 2, the stack depth usage for a 1000 element array will not exceed 10 nested calls.
Note: In either approach, the number of calls is the same. The difference lies in the maximum degree of nesting. Using recursion where a simple for() loop would suffice is questionable. To conquer a more complex assessment is recursion's strength, hence this approach.
To find the max and its frequency using O(log2(length)) stack depth usage:
#include <stddef.h>
typedef struct {
int value;
size_t frequency; // `size_t` better to use that `int` for large arrays.
} value_freq;
value_freq findMax(const int *a, size_t length) {
value_freq vf;
if (length <= 1) {
if (length == 0) {
vf.value = INT_MIN; // Degenerate value if the array was size 0.
vf.frequency = 0;
} else {
vf.value = *a;
vf.frequency = 1;
}
} else {
size_t length1sthalf = length / 2;
vf = findMax(a, length1sthalf);
value_freq vf1 = findMax(&a[length1sthalf], length - length1sthalf);
if (vf1.value > vf.value)
return vf1;
if (vf.value == vf1.value)
vf.frequency += vf1.frequency;
}
return vf;
}

Answer 2

Your are not thaaaat far.
In order to save the frequency and the max you can keep a pointer to a structure, then just pass the pointer to the start of your array, the length you want to go through, and a pointer to this struct.
Keep in mind that you should use INT_MIN in limits.h as your initial max (see reset(maxfreq *) in the code below), as int can carry negative values.
The following code does the job recursively:
#include <limits.h>
typedef struct {
int max;
int freq;
} maxfreq;
void reset(maxfreq *mfreq){
mfreq->max = INT_MIN;
mfreq->freq = 0;
}
void findMax(int* a, int length, maxfreq *mfreq){
if(length>0){
if(*a == mfreq->max)
mfreq->freq++;
else if(*a > mfreq->max){
mfreq->freq = 1;
mfreq->max = *a;
}
findMax(a+1, length - 1, mfreq);
}
}
A call to findMax will recall itself as many times as the initial length plus one, each time incrementing the provided pointer and processing the corresponding element, so this is basically just going through all of the elements in a once, and no weird splitting.

Answer 3

this works fine with me :
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
// define a struct that contains the (max, freq) information
struct arrInfo
{
int max;
int count;
};
struct arrInfo maxArr(int * arr, int max, int size, int count)
{
int maxF;
struct arrInfo myArr;
if(size == 0) // to return from recursion we check the size left
{
myArr.max = max; // prepare the struct to output
myArr.count = count;
return(myArr);
}
if(*arr > max) // new maximum found
{
maxF = *arr; // update the max
count = 1; // initialize the frequency
}
else if (*arr == max) // same max encountered another time
{
maxF = max; // keep track of same max
count ++; // increase frequency
}
else // nothing changes
maxF = max; // keep track of max
arr++; // move the pointer to next element
size --; // decrease size by 1
return(maxArr(arr, maxF, size, count)); // recursion
}
int main()
{
struct arrInfo info; // return of the recursive function
// define an array
int arr[] = {8, 4, 8, 3, 7};
info = maxArr(arr, 0, 5, 1); // call with max=0 size=5 freq=1
printf("max = %d count = %d\n", info.max, info.count);
return 0;
}
when ran, it outputs :
max = 8 count = 3
Notice
In my code example I assumed the numbers to be positive (initializing max to 0), I don't know your requirements but you can elaborate.

Answer 4

The reqirements in your assignment are at least questionable. Just for reference, here is how this should be done in real code (to solve your assignment, refer to the other answers):
int findMax(int length, int* array, int* maxCount) {
int trash;
if(!maxCount) maxCount = &trash; //make sure we ignore it when a NULL pointer is passed in
*maxCount = 0;
int result = INT_MIN;
for(int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
if(array[i] > result) {
*maxCount = 1;
result = array[i];
} else if(array[i] == result) {
(*maxCount)++;
}
}
return result;
}
Always do things as straight forward as you can.