Swift Array max()

var numbers = [9, 34, 11, -4, 27]

// find the largest number
print(numbers.max()!)

// Output: 34

max() Syntax

The syntax of the array max() method is:

array.max()

Here, array is an object of the Array class.

max() Parameters

The max() method doesn't take any parameters.

max() Return Values

• returns the maximum element from the array

Note: The max() method returns an optional value, so we need to unwrap it. There are different techniques to unwrap optionals. To learn more about optionals, visit Swift Optionals.

Example 1: Swift Array max()

// create an array of integers
var integers = [2, 4, 6, 8, 10]

// create an array of floating-point number
var decimals = [1.2, 3.4, 7.5, 9.6]

// find the largest element in integers array
print(integers.max())

// find the largest element in decimals array 
print(decimals.max()!)

Output

Optional(10)
9.6

In the above example, we have created two arrays named integers and decimals. Notice the following:

• integers.max() - since we have not unwrapped the optional, the method returns Optional(10)

• decimals.max()! - since we have used ! to force unwrap the optional, the method returns 9.6.

To learn more about forced unwrapping, visit Optional Forced Unwrapping.

Example 2: Find Largest String Using max()

var languages = ["Swift", "Python", "Java"]

// find the largest string
print(languages.max()!)

Output

Swift

Here, the elements in the languages array are strings, so the max() method returns the largest element (alphabetically).