Find N Largest Elements from a List in Python

In this example, we will see how to find the N largest elements from a List. The list is the most versatile datatype available in Python, which can be written as a list of comma-separated values (items) between square brackets. Important thing about a list is that the items in a list need not be of the same type

Let's say the following is the input list ?

[25, 18, 29, 87, 45, 67, 98, 5, 59]

The following is the output displaying the N largest element from the list. Here, N = 3 ?

[98, 87, 67]

Python program to find N largest elements from a list with for loop

We will use a for loop here to find the N largest elements from a List ?

Example

def LargestFunc(list1, N):
	new_list = []
	for i in range(0, N):
		max1 = 0
		for j in range(len(list1)):
			if list1[j] > max1:
				max1 = list1[j];
			
		list1.remove(max1);
		new_list.append(max1)
	print("Largest numbers = ",new_list)

# Driver code
my_list = [12, 61, 41, 85, 40, 13, 77, 65, 100]
N = 4

# Calling the function
LargestFunc(my_list, N)

Output

Largest numbers = [100, 85, 77, 65]

Python program to find N largest elements from a list using the sort()

We will use a built-in function sort() to find the N largest elements from a List ?

Example

# Create a List
myList = [120, 50, 89, 170, 45, 250, 450, 340]

print("List = ",myList)

# The value of N
n = 4

# First, sort the List
myList.sort()

# Now, get the largest N integers from the list
print("Largest integers from the List = ",myList[-n:])

Output

List = [120, 50, 89, 170, 45, 250, 450, 340]
Largest integers from the List = [170, 250, 340, 450]