{"id":25826,"date":"2017-10-25T20:54:34","date_gmt":"2017-10-25T15:24:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wikitechy.com\/technology\/?p=25826"},"modified":"2017-10-25T20:54:34","modified_gmt":"2017-10-25T15:24:34","slug":"smallest-three-integers-without-comparison-operators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wikitechy.com\/technology\/smallest-three-integers-without-comparison-operators\/","title":{"rendered":"C programming Smallest of three integers without comparison operators"},"content":{"rendered":"

Write a C program to find the smallest of three integers, without using any of the comparison operators.<\/p>\n

Let 3 input numbers be x, y and z.<\/p>\n

Method 1 (Repeated Subtraction)<\/strong>
\nTake a counter variable c and initialize it with 0. In a loop, repeatedly subtract x, y and z by 1 and increment c. The number which becomes 0 first is the smallest. After the loop terminates, c will hold the minimum of 3.<\/p>\n

c<\/span> <\/div> 
#include<stdio.h> int smallest(int x, int y, int z){  int c = 0;  while ( x && y && z )  {      x--;  y--; z--; c++;  }  return c;}<\/code><\/pre> <\/div>\n
int<\/code> main()<\/code><\/div>\n
{<\/code><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/code>int<\/code> x = 12, y = 15, z = 5;<\/code><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/code>printf<\/code>(<\/code>\"Minimum of 3 numbers is %d\"<\/code>, smallest(x, y, z));<\/code><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/code>return<\/code> 0;<\/code><\/div>\n
}<\/code><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
This methid doesn\u2019t work for negative numbers. Method 2 works for negative nnumbers also.<\/div>\n
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\n
Method 2 (Use Bit Operations)<\/strong>
\nUse method 2 of this post to find minimum of two numbers (We can\u2019t use Method 1 as Method 1 uses comparison operator). Once we have functionality to find minimum of 2 numbers, we can use this to find minimum of 3 numbers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 
 c<\/span> <\/div> 
\/\/ See mthod 2 of http:\/\/www.geeksforgeeks.org\/archives\/2643#include<stdio.h>#define CHAR_BIT 8 \/*Function to find minimum of x and y*\/int min(int x, int y){  return  y + ((x - y) & ((x - y) >>            (sizeof(int) * CHAR_BIT - 1)));} \/* Function to find minimum of 3 numbers x, y and z*\/int smallest(int x, int y, int z){    return min(x, min(y, z));} int main(){   int x = 12, y = 15, z = 5;   printf("Minimum of 3 numbers is %d", smallest(x, y, z));   return 0;}<\/code><\/pre> <\/div>\n[ad type=”banner”]\n
Method 3 (Use Division operator)<\/strong>
\nWe can also use division operator to find minimum of two numbers. If value of (a\/b) is zero, then b is greater than a, else a is greater. Thanks to gopinath and Vignesh for suggesting this method.<\/p>\n
 
 c<\/span> <\/div> 
#include <stdio.h> \/\/ Using division operator to find minimum of three numbersint smallest(int x, int y, int z){    if (!(y\/x))  \/\/ Same as "if (y < x)"        return (!(y\/z))? y : z;    return (!(x\/z))? x : z;}<\/code><\/pre> <\/div>\n
int<\/code>main()<\/code><\/div>\n
{<\/code><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/code>int<\/code>x = 78, y = 88, z = 68;<\/code><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/code>printf<\/code>(<\/code>\"Minimum of 3 numbers is %d\"<\/code>, smallest(x, y, z));<\/code><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/code>return<\/code>0;<\/code><\/div>\n
}<\/code><\/div>\n
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<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Smallest of three integers without comparison – Bit Algorithm – Take a counter variable c and initialize 0. In a loop, repeatedly subtract x, y and z by 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69969,74852,1],"tags":[75676,75658,75681,75664,75665,75688,75682,75653,75675,75684,75654,75669,75656,75662,75657,75655,75680,75674,75667,75671,75651,74828,75652,75666,75686,75588,74064,75687,75678,75663,75661,75583,75590,75668,75660,72725,74093,75672,75670,75673,74059,73146,75659,75679,75685],"class_list":["post-25826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-algorithm","category-bit-algorithms","category-coding","tag-6-digit-smallest-number","tag-algorithm-and-flowchart","tag-algorithm-and-flowchart-examples","tag-algorithm-and-flowchart-in-c","tag-algorithm-flowchart","tag-algorithm-for-greatest-of-three-numbers","tag-c-program-to-find-average-of-3-numbers-using-function","tag-c-program-to-find-the-greatest-of-three-numbers","tag-c-program-using-ternary-operator","tag-comparing-3-numbers-in-java","tag-conditional-operator-in-c","tag-example-of-flowchart","tag-example-of-problem-with-algorithm-and-flowchart","tag-flow-chart-example","tag-flowchart-algorithm","tag-flowchart-and-algorithm","tag-flowchart-example-problems","tag-flowchart-examples","tag-flowchart-examples-programming","tag-flowchart-in-c","tag-how-to-write-pseudocode","tag-if-else-c-programming","tag-largest-4-digit-number","tag-largest-5-digit-number","tag-max-of-3-numbers","tag-numbers-divisible-by-4","tag-numbers-divisible-by-7","tag-pl-sql-program-to-find-greatest-of-three-numbers","tag-program-to-find-greatest-of-three-numbers-in-java","tag-pseudocode-and-flowchart-examples","tag-pseudocode-examples","tag-smallest-2-digit-number","tag-smallest-4-digit-number","tag-smallest-5-digit-number","tag-smallest-8-digit-number","tag-smallest-c-program","tag-smallest-even-number","tag-smallest-five-digit-number","tag-smallest-four-digit-number","tag-smallest-one-digit-number","tag-smallest-three-digit-number","tag-sorting-program-in-c","tag-ternary-operator-in-c","tag-write-75-as-a-product-of-prime-factors","tag-write-a-program-to-find-largest-of-three-numbers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wikitechy.com\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wikitechy.com\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wikitechy.com\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wikitechy.com\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wikitechy.com\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wikitechy.com\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25826\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wikitechy.com\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wikitechy.com\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wikitechy.com\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}