Find the second smallest number in a list using recursion

Question

I know there has been a question asked on this topic, but none of the answers have helped me. I don\'t need help with implementing the code, I just need help sorting through the

Answer 1

I can think of several ways. The slow one is to find the largest value of the given list, and then recur on the rest of the list. When the list length is 2, don't make the recursive call.

A faster one is to find the smallest element, recur on the remainder of the list, iterating only twice. Write a routine to find the nth smallest element this way, and then wrap it in a routine that calls it with n=2.

Is that enough of a start?