It's because you're only comparing the current and next numbers in the array. The way I would do it, is keep track of the highest number in another variable. The variable is initialized to the first number in the array. 
use strict;

my @array = (1, 5, 4, 10, 20, 2, 1, 3, 7);
my $highest = $array[0];

foreach (@array) {
    $highest = $_ if $_ > $highest;
}

print $highest;

[download]
Which gives me 20. I'm sure there are prettier ways, but this seems to work.

Update: and of course, the perlish way would be to use sort. duh. ++newrisedesigns. I need a coffee.

--
"I don't intend for this to take on a political tone. I'm just here for the drugs." --Nancy Reagan

In reply to Re: finding highest number by LTjake
in thread finding highest number by Anonymous Monk

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