C Exercises: Find the largest element using Dynamic Memory Allocation

Last update on October 16 2025 11:44:02 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

9. Largest Element Using Dynamic Memory Allocation

Write a program in C to find the largest element using Dynamic Memory Allocation.

Visual Presentation:

Sample Solution:

C Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main() {
    int i, n;
    float *element; // Pointer to float type to store elements

    printf("\n\n Pointer : Find the largest element using Dynamic Memory Allocation :\n");
    printf("-------------------------------------------------------------------------\n");

    // Input the total number of elements
    printf(" Input total number of elements (1 to 100): ");
    scanf("%d", &n);

    element = (float *)calloc(n, sizeof(float)); // Allocate memory for 'n' elements

    if (element == NULL) {
        printf(" No memory is allocated."); // If memory allocation fails
        exit(0);
    }

    printf("\n");

    // Input 'n' numbers and store them dynamically in the allocated memory
    for (i = 0; i < n; ++i) {
        printf(" Number %d: ", i + 1);
        scanf("%f", element + i);
    }

    // Find the largest element among the 'n' elements
    for (i = 1; i < n; ++i) {
        if (*element < *(element + i)) {
            *element = *(element + i); // Store the largest element in the first memory location
        }
    }

    printf(" The Largest element is :  %.2f \n\n", *element); // Display the largest element found
    return 0;
}

Sample Output:

 Pointer : Find the largest element using Dynamic Memory Allocation :                                         
-------------------------------------------------------------------------                                     
 Input total number of elements(1 to 100): 5                                                                  
                                                                                                              
 Number 1: 5                                                                                                  
 Number 2: 7                                                                                                  
 Number 3: 2                                                                                                  
 Number 4: 9                                                                                                  
 Number 5: 8                                                                                                  
 The Largest element is :  9.00 

Flowchart:

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

• Write a C program to allocate memory for an array dynamically and find both the largest and smallest elements using pointers.
• Write a C program to find the largest element in a dynamically allocated array and then compute the average of the array elements.
• Write a C program to use dynamic memory allocation for an array, sort it using pointers, and then print the largest element.
• Write a C program to input n numbers dynamically and then find the largest element using recursion with pointers.

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