🔁 extremum -- two recursive functions written in Python

maximum.py

"""
maximum.py -- a recursive maximum finder using Python

This source code is licensed under a Creative Commons CC0 license.
More info at <https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/>.
"""


def get_maximum(numbers):
    if len(numbers) == 1:
        return numbers[0]

    aximum = get_maximum(numbers[1:])
    return numbers[0] if numbers[0] > aximum else aximum


# Use a more idiomatic approach.
def get_the_maximum_of(numbers):
    first, *residuum = numbers
    if not residuum:
        return first

    aximum = get_the_maximum_of(residuum)
    return first if first > aximum else aximum


if __name__ == "__main__":
    example = [3, 14, 1, -5, 9, 2]
    maximum = get_maximum(example)
    print(maximum)

    another_example = [3, 14, 1, -5, 9, 2, 6, 5, 3, 5, 8]
    another_maximum = get_the_maximum_of(another_example)
    print(another_maximum)

minimum.py

"""
minimum.py -- a recursive minimum finder using Python

This source code is licensed under a Creative Commons CC0 license.
More info at <https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/>.
"""


def get_minimum(numbers):
    if len(numbers) == 1:
        return numbers[0]

    inimum = get_minimum(numbers[1:])
    return numbers[0] if numbers[0] < inimum else inimum


# Use a more idiomatic approach.
def get_the_minimum_of(numbers):
    first, *residuum = numbers
    if not residuum:
        return first

    inimum = get_the_minimum_of(residuum)
    return first if first < inimum else inimum


if __name__ == "__main__":
    example = [3, 14, 1, -5, 9, 2]
    minimum = get_minimum(example)
    print(minimum)

    another_example = [3, 14, 1, -5, 9, 2, 6, 5, 3, 5, 8]
    another_minimum = get_the_minimum_of(another_example)
    print(another_minimum)