The answer
It is a special, predefined value (like -1 or infinity) returned by a function to signal that a valid result could not be computed.
Edge Cases: Arrays with Less Than Two Elements
What is a sentinel value?
More FAQs in Edge Cases: Arrays with Less Than Two Elements
It cannot have a second largest element. Attempting to process it without checks will either return a default dummy value or crash the program.
A Guard Clause is a check at the very beginning of a function that validates inputs and returns immediately if the inputs are invalid or too small.
In languages like Java or C#, passing a null array to a function and calling array.length will cause a NullPointerException crash.
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