Approach
Avoid using if-stmts to find maximum. Use python builtin max. Use either generator or filter to find only the odd numbers.
Using builtins like this is safer/more reliable because it is simpler to compose them, the code is well-tested, and the code executes mostly in C (rather than multiple byte code instructions).
Code
def find_largest_odd(*args):
return max(arg for arg in args if arg & 1)
or:
def find_largest_odd(*args):
return max(filter(lambda x: x & 1, args))
Test
>>> def find_largest_odd(*args):
... return max(arg for arg in args if arg & 1)
...
>>> print find_largest_odd(1, 3, 5, 7)
7
>>> print find_largest_odd(1, 2, 4, 6)
1
and:
>>> def find_largest_odd(*args):
... return max(filter(lambda x: x & 1, args))
>>> print find_largest_odd(1, 3, 5, 7)
7
>>> print find_largest_odd(1, 2, 4, 6)
1
If you pass an empty sequence or provide only even numbers, you will get a ValueError:
>>> find_largest_odd(0)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
File "<stdin>", line 2, in find_largest_odd
ValueError: max() arg is an empty sequence