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How to Find the Smallest or Largest Number in a List

The min() and max() built-in functions take any iterable object and return minimum or maximum element respectively. By default, they work with numbers.

>>> min([3, 4, 1, 2])
1
>>> max([3, 4, 1, 2])
4

But a key function can be passed to determine the criterion according to which one element is greater than another. For example:

def population(country):
    return {
        "United States": 327,
        "China": 1391,
        "Indonesia": 264,
        "India": 1364
    }[country]

countries = ["United States", "China", "Indonesia", "India"]
print(max(countries, key=population))   # China.
print(min(countries, key=population))   # Indonesia.

lists built-ins

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