Maximum value of the list

[Dayananda]

a = (100 125 10 97)

Now how can I get the maximum value  of above list (max a) does not works.

But (car a) = 100 it can get

 

Edited December 24, 2019 by Dayananda

[hanhphuc]

49 minutes ago, Dayananda said:

a = (100 125 10 97)

Now how can I get the maximum value  of above list (max a) does not works.

But (car a) = 100 it can get

 

 

 

(apply 'max a)

 

[Grrr]

FWIW another way

(eval (cons max a))

 

[Lee Mac]

(apply 'max a) will always be the quickest, but will be susceptible to the inherent limitation in the number of arguments that you can supply to the min or max functions, and will therefore fail for long lists; other alternatives which avoid this limit might be:

(car (vl-sort a '>))

But sorting is also unnecessarily slow - on average on the order of O(n log(n)) when only a maximum is required, and so this method should be avoided.

 

Another alternative might be:

(setq r (car a))
(foreach x (cdr a) (if (< r x) (setq r x)))