How to find maximum number in 2d python list

Question

I have a list in python like

my_list = [2,4,6,[5,10,3]] 

How can I find the maximum number (i.e. the program should return max as 10)?

thanks

Answer 1

Flatten your list, and then you can use the built-in max() function:

 l = [2,4,6,[5,10,3]] def flatten(seq): for el in seq: if isinstance(el, list): yield from flatten(el) else: yield el print(max(flatten(l))) # 10 

Answer 2

May be shorter / better, but in one way:

 my_list = [2,4,6,[5,10,3]] print(max(max(x) if isinstance(x, list) else x for x in my_list)) 

Answer 3

To find the maximum value, repeating twice seems redundant to me. First, to flatten the list, and then to search for the maximum value. Here is an example of creating a recursive function to return the maximum value of a nested list in one iteration as follows:

 # The good thing is, you need not to worry about the level of depth # of the nested list, you can use it on any level of nested list def get_max(my_list): m = None for item in my_list: if isinstance(item, list): item = get_max(item) if not m or m < item: m = item return m 

Run Example:

 >>> my_list = [2,4,6,[5,10,3]] >>> get_max(my_list) 10