Re^2: Ternary vs. Sort vs. Max

[Anonymous Monk]

The basic problem in this example, though, is that none of these three examples are actually equivalent!

They accomplish the same thing in different ways... what definition of "equivalent" are you using here?

[Laurent_R]

They are equivalent for finding the max of only two values, but a single ternary operator can't be used when there are more than two values or when the number of values is not known in advance. But for only 2 values, I prefer the ternary operator.

Then, for more values, I would not be too reluctant at using sort for just a handful of values, but I would avoid it for a large list because of the overhead. So, in that latter case, I would rather use the List::Utils max function, or roll my own sequential iteration through the list if the type of max I am looking for is something more complicated than just the largest number in a list (or perhaps use the List::Utils handsome reduce function with a appropriate code block).