Solution Exercise 49: Python algorithm that determines the maximum of elements with even index of a given list

Exercise 49

Write a Python algorithm as a function that takes a list L as a parameter and returns the maximum number of elements with even index without using any predefined functions in Python. Example if L = [13, 2, 31, 120, 4, 97, 15], the algorithm returns the number 31.

Solution

def maxEven (L):
     # initialize the maximum of even index elements
     evenMax = L [0]
     # iterate over even index items in the list
     for i in range (0, len (L)):
          if i% 2 == 0:
               # each time that evenMax < L[i] replace evenMax by L[i]
               if evenMax <L [i]:
                    evenMax = L [i]
     return evenMax

# Example
L = [13, 2, 31, 120, 4, 97, 15]
print (maxEven (L)) # output:  31