If the list (or hash) is large, first doing a sort is a Really Bad IdeaTM given that this is an O(n log n) operation. As choedebeck's code above illustates it can be done in time linear in the size of the list/hash, i.e., O(n). This is a significant difference for large values of n.

Hope this helps, -gjb-

In reply to Re: How to get 2nd highest value from an array? by gjb
in thread How to get 2nd highest value from an array? by rsiedl

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