// find the biggest element in an array int a[].
assert a.length > 0 : "only works if there are some elements in the array";

// presume the biggest element is the first one.
int biggestSoFar = a[0];

// loop through all elements looking for an even bigger one.
for ( int candidate : a )
   {
   if ( candidate > biggestSoFar )
      {
      biggestSoFar = candidate;
      }
   }
// biggestSoFar now contains the biggest.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

// if we need to find out where, (which index) the biggest was, you need code like this:
assert a.length > 0 : "only works if there are some elements in the array";

// presume the biggest element is the first one.
int biggestSoFarIndex = 0;
int biggestSoFar = a[0];

// loop through all elements looking for an even bigger one.
for ( int i=1; i<a.length; i++  )
   {
   if ( a[i] > biggestSoFar )
      {
      biggestSoFarIndex = i;
      biggestSoFar = a[i];
      }
   }

// When you fall out the bottom of the loop,
// biggestSoFarIndex will have index of biggest,
// and biggestSoFar will have the biggest value