Most frequent element in an array

Given an array, find the most frequent element in it. If there are multiple elements that appear maximum number of times, print any one of them.

Examples:

Input : arr[] = {1, 3, 2, 1, 4, 1}
Output : 1
1 appears three times in array which
is maximum frequency.

Input : arr[] = {10, 20, 10, 20, 30, 20, 20}
Output : 20

Recommended: Please try your approach on {IDE} first, before moving on to the solution.

A simple solution is to run two loops. The outer loop picks all elements one by one. The inner loop finds frequency of the picked element and compares with the maximum so far. Time complexity of this solution is O(n²)

A better solution is to do sorting. We first sort the array, then linearly traverse the array.

C++

// CPP program to find the most frequent element 
// in an array. 
#include <bits/stdc++.h> 
using namespace std; 
  
int mostFrequent(int arr[], int n) 
{ 
    // Sort the array 
    sort(arr, arr + n); 
  
    // find the max frequency using linear traversal 
    int max_count = 1, res = arr[0], curr_count = 1; 
    for (int i = 1; i < n; i++) { 
        if (arr[i] == arr[i - 1]) 
            curr_count++; 
        else { 
            if (curr_count > max_count) { 
                max_count = curr_count; 
                res = arr[i - 1]; 
            } 
            curr_count = 1; 
        } 
    } 
  
    // If last element is most frequent 
    if (curr_count > max_count) 
    { 
        max_count = curr_count; 
        res = arr[n - 1]; 
    } 
  
    return res; 
} 
  
// driver program 
int main() 
{ 
    int arr[] = { 1, 5, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1 }; 
    int n = sizeof(arr) / sizeof(arr[0]); 
    cout << mostFrequent(arr, n); 
    return 0; 
} 

Java

//Java program to find the most frequent element 
//in an array 
import java.util.*; 
  
class GFG { 
      
    static int mostFrequent(int arr[], int n) 
    { 
          
        // Sort the array 
        Arrays.sort(arr); 
          
        // find the max frequency using linear 
        // traversal 
        int max_count = 1, res = arr[0]; 
        int curr_count = 1; 
          
        for (int i = 1; i < n; i++) 
        { 
            if (arr[i] == arr[i - 1]) 
                curr_count++; 
            else 
            { 
                if (curr_count > max_count) 
                { 
                    max_count = curr_count; 
                    res = arr[i - 1]; 
                } 
                curr_count = 1; 
            } 
        } 
      
        // If last element is most frequent 
        if (curr_count > max_count) 
        { 
            max_count = curr_count; 
            res = arr[n - 1]; 
        } 
      
        return res; 
    } 
      
    // Driver program 
    public static void main (String[] args) { 
          
        int arr[] = {1, 5, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1}; 
        int n = arr.length; 
          
        System.out.println(mostFrequent(arr,n)); 
          
    } 
} 
  
// This code is contributed by Akash Singh. 

Python3

# Python3 program to find the most  
# frequent element in an array. 
  
def mostFrequent(arr, n): 
  
    # Sort the array 
    arr.sort() 
  
    # find the max frequency using 
    # linear traversal 
    max_count = 1; res = arr[0]; curr_count = 1
      
    for i in range(1, n):  
        if (arr[i] == arr[i - 1]): 
            curr_count += 1
              
        else : 
            if (curr_count > max_count):  
                max_count = curr_count 
                res = arr[i - 1] 
              
            curr_count = 1
      
    # If last element is most frequent 
    if (curr_count > max_count): 
      
        max_count = curr_count 
        res = arr[n - 1] 
      
    return res 
  
# Driver Code 
arr = [1, 5, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1]  
n = len(arr) 
print(mostFrequent(arr, n)) 
  
# This code is contributed by Smitha Dinesh Semwal. 

C#

// C# program to find the most  
// frequent element in an array 
using System; 
  
class GFG { 
      
    static int mostFrequent(int []arr, int n) 
    { 
          
        // Sort the array 
        Array.Sort(arr); 
          
        // find the max frequency using  
        // linear traversal 
        int max_count = 1, res = arr[0]; 
        int curr_count = 1; 
          
        for (int i = 1; i < n; i++) 
        { 
            if (arr[i] == arr[i - 1]) 
                curr_count++; 
            else
            { 
                if (curr_count > max_count) 
                { 
                    max_count = curr_count; 
                    res = arr[i - 1]; 
                } 
                curr_count = 1; 
            } 
        } 
      
        // If last element is most frequent 
        if (curr_count > max_count) 
        { 
            max_count = curr_count; 
            res = arr[n - 1]; 
        } 
      
        return res; 
    } 
      
    // Driver code 
    public static void Main ()  
    { 
          
        int []arr = {1, 5, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1}; 
        int n = arr.Length; 
          
        Console.WriteLine(mostFrequent(arr,n)); 
          
    } 
} 
  
// This code is contributed by vt_m. 

PHP

<?php 
// PHP program to find the 
// most frequent element 
// in an array. 
  
function mostFrequent( $arr, $n) 
{ 
      
    // Sort the array 
    sort($arr); 
    sort($arr , $n); 
  
    // find the max frequency  
    // using linear traversal 
    $max_count = 1;  
    $res = $arr[0];  
    $curr_count = 1; 
    for ($i = 1; $i < $n; $i++)  
    { 
        if ($arr[$i] == $arr[$i - 1]) 
            $curr_count++; 
        else 
        { 
            if ($curr_count > $max_count) 
            { 
                $max_count = $curr_count; 
                $res = $arr[$i - 1]; 
            } 
            $curr_count = 1; 
        } 
    } 
  
    // If last element  
    // is most frequent 
    if ($curr_count > $max_count) 
    { 
        $max_count = $curr_count; 
        $res = $arr[$n - 1]; 
    } 
  
    return $res; 
} 
  
// Driver Code 
{ 
    $arr = array(1, 5, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1); 
    $n = sizeof($arr) / sizeof($arr[0]); 
    echo mostFrequent($arr, $n); 
    return 0; 
} 
  
// This code is contributed by nitin mittal 
?> 

Output :

Time Complexity : O(n Log n)
Auxiliary Space : O(1)

An efficient solution is to use hashing. We create a hash table and store elements and their frequency counts as key value pairs. Finally we traverse the hash table and print the key with maximum value.

C++

// CPP program to find the most frequent element 
// in an array. 
#include <bits/stdc++.h> 
using namespace std; 
  
int mostFrequent(int arr[], int n) 
{ 
    // Insert all elements in hash. 
    unordered_map<int, int> hash; 
    for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) 
        hash[arr[i]]++; 
  
    // find the max frequency 
    int max_count = 0, res = -1; 
    for (auto i : hash) { 
        if (max_count < i.second) { 
            res = i.first; 
            max_count = i.second; 
        } 
    } 
  
    return res; 
} 
  
// driver program 
int main() 
{ 
    int arr[] = { 1, 5, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1 }; 
    int n = sizeof(arr) / sizeof(arr[0]); 
    cout << mostFrequent(arr, n); 
    return 0; 
} 

Java

//Java program to find the most frequent element 
//in an array 
import java.util.HashMap; 
import java.util.Map; 
import java.util.Map.Entry; 
  
class GFG { 
      
    static int mostFrequent(int arr[], int n) 
    { 
          
        // Insert all elements in hash 
        Map<Integer, Integer> hp = 
               new HashMap<Integer, Integer>(); 
          
        for(int i = 0; i < n; i++) 
        { 
            int key = arr[i]; 
            if(hp.containsKey(key)) 
            { 
                int freq = hp.get(key); 
                freq++; 
                hp.put(key, freq); 
            } 
            else
            { 
                hp.put(key, 1); 
            } 
        } 
          
        // find max frequency. 
        int max_count = 0, res = -1; 
          
        for(Entry<Integer, Integer> val : hp.entrySet()) 
        { 
            if (max_count < val.getValue()) 
            { 
                res = val.getKey(); 
                max_count = val.getValue(); 
            } 
        } 
          
        return res; 
    } 
      
    // Driver code 
    public static void main (String[] args) { 
          
        int arr[] = {1, 5, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1}; 
        int n = arr.length; 
          
        System.out.println(mostFrequent(arr, n)); 
    } 
} 
  
// This code is contributed by Akash Singh. 

Python3

# Python3 program to find the most  
# frequent element in an array. 
import math as mt 
  
def mostFrequent(arr, n): 
  
    # Insert all elements in Hash. 
    Hash = dict() 
    for i in range(n): 
        if arr[i] in Hash.keys(): 
            Hash[arr[i]] += 1
        else: 
            Hash[arr[i]] = 1
  
    # find the max frequency 
    max_count = 0
    res = -1
    for i in Hash:  
        if (max_count < Hash[i]):  
            res = i 
            max_count = Hash[i] 
          
    return res 
  
# Driver Code 
arr = [ 1, 5, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1]  
n = len(arr) 
print(mostFrequent(arr, n)) 
  
# This code is contributed  
# by Mohit kumar 29 

C#

// C# program to find the most  
// frequent element in an array 
using System; 
using System.Collections.Generic; 
  
class GFG 
{ 
    static int mostFrequent(int []arr,  
                            int n) 
    { 
        // Insert all elements in hash 
        Dictionary<int, int> hp =  
                    new Dictionary<int, int>(); 
          
        for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) 
        { 
            int key = arr[i]; 
            if(hp.ContainsKey(key)) 
            { 
                int freq = hp[key]; 
                freq++; 
                hp[key] = freq; 
            } 
            else
                hp.Add(key, 1); 
        } 
          
        // find max frequency. 
        int min_count = 0, res = -1; 
          
        foreach (KeyValuePair<int,  
                    int> pair in hp) 
        { 
            if (min_count < pair.Value) 
            { 
                res = pair.Key; 
                min_count = pair.Value; 
            } 
        }  
        return res; 
    } 
      
    // Driver code 
    static void Main () 
    { 
        int []arr = new int[]{1, 5, 2,  
                              1, 3, 2, 1}; 
        int n = arr.Length; 
          
        Console.Write(mostFrequent(arr, n)); 
    } 
} 
  
// This code is contributed by 
// Manish Shaw(manishshaw1) 

Output:

Time Complexity : O(n)
Auxiliary Space : O(n)

My Personal Notes

Recommended: Please try your approach on {IDE} first, before moving on to the solution.

C++

Java

Python3

C#

PHP

C++

Java

Python3

C#

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