How to find the maximum value in an array of structures? - c

Question

How to get the max value in a structure? I have tried to create a simple program but I'm having issues with the if statement or variable, since I cannot determine the winner or candidate number which has the highest score.
#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>
struct Candidate{
float Score;
short Number;
}candidate1[5];
main(){
int i,n,highest;
for(i=0;i<5;i++){
printf("Candidate Number: ");
scanf("%i",&candidate1[i].Number);
printf("Score: ");
scanf("%i",&candidate1[i].Score);
highest=candidate1[i].Score;
for (n=0;n<5;n++)
if (candidate1[i].Score>highest);
}
printf("Highest Number: %i\n",highest);
system("pause");
}

Answer 1

fix like this
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
struct Candidate {
float Score;
short Number;
}candidate1[5];
int main(void){
int i, n, highest = 0;
n = sizeof(candidate1)/sizeof(*candidate1);
for(i=0;i<n;++i){
printf("Candidate Number: ");
scanf("%hi", &candidate1[i].Number);
printf("Score: ");
scanf("%f",&candidate1[i].Score);
if(candidate1[highest].Score < candidate1[i].Score)
highest = i;
}
printf("Highest Number: %f\n", candidate1[highest].Score);
system("pause");
return 0;
}
,

Answer 2

The most common idiom for finding the max of type <T> (double, int, whatever) from an array of structs <S> goes as follows
<S> array[numElements]; //defined and allocated earlier. Has a score `<T> score`
<T> bestScore = array[0].score;
int bestIndex = 0;
int i;
for(i=1;i<numElements;i++) {
if(array[i].score>bestScore) {
bestIndex = i;
bestScore = array[i].score;
}
}
//do things with bestScore and array[bestIndex];
If you have a 2D array you can replace the single for-loop with a double for loop, and use an additional bestIndex variable for the second dimension.
If the array may contain 0 elements it is sometimes common to set bestScore to a minimum possible value and loop from 0 to numElements.