Question

Write a Python function largest_difference that takes a list of integers as input, and returns the largest difference between any two elements of the list. If the list has less than two elements, the function should return 0.

Answer 1

To find the largest difference between any two elements in a list of integers, iterate through the list and keep track of the minimum and maximum values. Then, calculate the difference between the maximum and minimum values.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the largest difference between any two elements in a list of integers, you can iterate through the list and keep track of the minimum and maximum values. Start by initializing the minimum value as the first element of the list and the maximum value as the same. Then, iterate through the rest of the list, updating the minimum and maximum values if a smaller or larger element is found, respectively.

Once you have finished iterating through the list, you can calculate the largest difference by subtracting the minimum value from the maximum value. Here's an example implementation of the function:

def largest_difference(lst):
if len(lst) < 2:
return 0
min_val = max_val = lst[0]
for num in lst[1:]:
if num < min_val:
min_val = num
if num > max_val:
max_val = num
return max_val - min_val