How to find value which is berofe max value of an array?

I have an array, let it be r1 = rand(1,100).

I need to find max value and a value which is before maximum. How can i do it?

Maimum = max (r1);

p.s Simple example a = [1, 4, 10, 2, 7, 3, 6];

I know that max is 10, and 7 is before my max value. How to find 7, using Matlab?

Answer 1

[Bryan]

another option would be

max(a(a<max(a)))

[Serhii Sheinych]

Thank You!

[Walter Roberson]

The effective difference between this solution and my solution using maxk, is that with this solution if there is a "tie" for maximum, this returns a value less than that maximum anyhow, whereas the maxk solution will return multiple copies of the same value.

Also, this version has some subtle behavior if all of the entries are nan or all except one are nan: this version will return empty, whereas the maxk version would return nan.

[Bryan]

Yes, I agree. Use Walter Roberson's solution.

[Walter Roberson]

They are both valid, just slightly different on edge cases.

Answer 2

[Walter Roberson]

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/maxk.html

 maxk(a,2)

[Serhii Sheinych]

Thank You!