C++ Coding Practice #3
Today's C++ coding practice is to find the maximum and minimum of two numbers without using any loop or condition.
The Code
Here's the implementation I whipped out in under 5 minutes:
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| #include <iostream> | |
| #include <vector> | |
| int main() { | |
| int a = 77; | |
| int b = 5; | |
| std::vector<int> v; | |
| v.push_back(a); | |
| v.push_back(b); | |
| std::sort(v.begin(), v.end()); | |
| std::cout | |
| << "Min = " << v[0] << std::endl | |
| << "Max = " << v[1] << std::endl; | |
| } |
You can compile and run this code with the following commandline:
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| $ g++ test.cpp && ./a.out | |
| Min = 5 | |
| Max = 77 |
Dev Notes
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| // There may be a pedantic person out there that would argue: | |
| // | |
| // Internally, std::sort uses both loops and conditions | |
| // | |
| // but I think in practice, it's important to be creative and leverage | |
| // external libraries and APIs. If this was a "just for fun challenge", then | |
| // sure we can be overly strict, but in real life, this is not a | |
| // practical constraint to impose 99.9% of the time. And this code does | |
| // not directly use either loops or conditions. |
