Program to find second largest element in a list

second_max.py

"""
Program to find second largest element in a list
"""

def second_max(lis):
    if len(lis)==0:
        return 'empty list'
    if len(lis)==1:
        return 'Only 1 item in the list'
    if lis[1]>lis[0]:
        maxx,smaxx=lis[1],lis[0]
    elif lis[0]>lis[1]:
        maxx,smaxx=lis[0],lis[1]
    else:
        maxx=lis[0]
        smaxx=-float('inf')
    for x in lis[2:]:
        if x>maxx:
            smaxx=maxx
            maxx=x
        elif smaxx<x<maxx:
            smaxx=x
    print smaxx if smaxx !=-float('inf') else 'NO smaxx'