Java Program to Find the Second Largest and Smallest Elements in an Array

In this post, you will learn how to find the second largest and smallest elements in an array using the Java programming language in the easiest way. Firstly, we have declared and initialized an array and sorted the array using Arrays.sort() method. The element at the first and second last index is displayed, which is the second smallest and second largest element, respectively.

import java.util.Arrays;

public class SecondLargestAndSmallest {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        int[] arr = {5, 7, 2, 10, 3, 8};

        // Sort the array
        Arrays.sort(arr);

        // Get the second smallest element
        int secondSmallest = arr[1];
        // Get the second largest element
        int secondLargest = arr[arr.length - 2];

        System.out.println("Second Smallest Number: " + secondSmallest);
        System.out.println("Second Largest Number: " + secondLargest);
    }
}

Second Smallest Number: 3
Second Largest Number: 8

Code Explanation:

Sorting: The array is first sorted in ascending order using Arrays.sort(arr). This places the smallest element at the beginning and the largest at the end of the array.
Second Smallest Element: The second smallest element is at index 1.
Second Largest Element: The second largest element is at index arr.length - 2.

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