Program to find largest and smallest among 5 numbers without using array

Question

Yesterday I went for an interview where I have been asked to create a program to find largest and smallest among 5 numbers without using array    I know how to create the program using array   int largestNumber  int smallestNumber  int numbers n    largestNumber numbers 0   smallestNumber numbers 0   for  i 0   i lt n  i      if  numbers i   gt  largestNumber     largest   numbers i     if  numbers i   lt  smallestNumber     smallestNumber  numbers i         But how to create it without using array  Any help

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You can do something like this   int min num   INT MAX       2 31-1 int max num   INT MIN      -2 31 int input  while   std  cin eof          std  cin  gt  gt  input      min num   min input  min num       max num   max input  max num     cout  lt  lt   min     lt  lt  min num   cout  lt  lt   max     lt  lt  max num    This reads numbers from standard input until eof  it does not care how many you have - 5 or 1 000 000

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This is not an efficient answer but it still works   int a b c d e largest  if   a gt b  and  a gt c  and  a gt d  and  a gt e             largest a    else if   b gt a  and  b gt c  and  b gt d  and  b gt e             largest b    else if   c gt a  and  c gt a  and  c gt d  and  c gt e             largest c    else if   d gt a  and  d gt c  and  d gt a  and  d gt e             largest d    else    largest e      you can use similar logic to fid the smallest value

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Works for any number of numbers taken from standard input    include  lt algorithm gt   include  lt iterator gt   include  lt iostream gt   int main         std  istream iterator lt int gt  it begin std  cin   it end      auto p   std  minmax element it begin  it end       if  p first    it end          std  cout  lt  lt   min     lt  lt   p first  lt  lt    max     lt  lt   p second      Disclaimer  Technicaly  this isn t required to work by C   standard  The minimum iterator category required for minmax element is ForwardIterator which stream iterators are not  Once an input iterator is dereferenced or incremented  its copies are no longer guaranteed to be dereferenceable or comparable to other iterators  It Works On My MachineTM

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Heres what I did  without using an array  This was a method to return the highest number of 5 scores   double findHighest double score1  double score2  double score3  double score4  double score5        double highest   score1     if  score2  gt  score1  amp  amp  score2  gt  score3  amp  amp  score2  gt  score4  amp  amp  score2  gt  score5        highest   score2     if score3  gt  score1  amp  amp  score3  gt  score2  amp  amp  score3  gt  score4  amp  amp  score3  gt  score5        highest   score3     if score4  gt  score1  amp  amp  score4  gt  score2  amp  amp  score4  gt  score3  amp  amp  score4  gt  score5        highest   score4     if  score5  gt  score1  amp  amp  score5  gt  score2  amp  amp  score5  gt  score3  amp  amp  score5  gt  score4        highest   score5     return highest       An array is going to be far more efficient  but I had to do it for homework without using an array

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void main     int a b c d e max      max a      if b max          max b      if c max          max c      if d max          max d      if e max          max e      cout lt  lt  Maximum is  lt  lt max

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You could use list  or vector   which is not an array    include lt list gt   include lt algorithm gt   include lt iostream gt  using namespace std  int main         list lt int gt  l      l push back 3        l push back 9        l push back 30           l push back 0        l push back 5         list lt int gt   iterator it max   max element l begin    l end         list lt int gt   iterator it min   min element l begin    l end          cout  lt  lt   Max     lt  lt   it max  lt  lt  endl      cout  lt  lt   Min     lt  lt   it min  lt  lt  endl

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include  lt algorithm gt   include  lt iostream gt   template  lt typename T gt  inline const T amp  max of const T amp  a  const T amp  b        return std  max a  b      template  lt typename T  typename    Args gt  inline const T amp  max of const T amp  a  const T amp  b  const Args amp     args        return max of std  max a  b   args         int main         std  cout  lt  lt  max of 1  2  3  4  5   lt  lt  std  endl         Or just use the std library      std  cout  lt  lt  std  max  1  2  3  4  5    lt  lt  std  endl      return 0

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If you like to keep things simple  then here is my solution   It works for any number of integers taken from standard input  It also works for negative integers  Enter end when you are done    include  lt iostream gt   int main     int max min input  std  cout lt  lt  Enter the number     std  cin gt  gt input  min max input   while std  cin gt  gt input       if input gt max  max input      if input lt min  min input      std  cout lt  lt  Enter the number       std  cout lt  lt   nMax    lt  lt max lt  lt   nMin    lt  lt min

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int findMin int t1  int t2  int t3  int t4  int t5        int min1  min2  min3       min1   std  min t1  t2       min2   std  min t3  t4       min3   std  min min1  min2       return std  min min3  t5      int findMax int t1  int t2  int t3  int t4  int t5        int max1  max2  max3       max1   std  max t1  t2       max2   std  max t3  t4       max3   std  max max1  max2       return std  max max3  t5       These functions are very messy but easy to follow and thus easy to remember and it only uses the simple min and max methods which work best for 2 values

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The  gt  and  lt  are transitive properties  so if a  gt  b and b  gt  c  then a  gt  c  So you can  int a 10  b 6  c 4  d 21  e 4   int maxNum   a  int maxNum   max b  maxNum   int maxNum   max c  maxNum   int maxNum   max d  maxNum   int maxNum   max e  maxNum

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For example 5 consecutive numbers   int largestNumber  int smallestNumber  int number  std  cin gt  gt number  largestNumber   number  smallestNumber   number  for  i 0   i lt 5  i         std  cin gt  gt number     if  number  gt  largestNumber             largest   number          if  numbers  lt  smallestNumber             smallestNumber  number

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Here s my implementation  Simple and short   include  lt iostream gt   include  lt cstdio gt  using namespace std    int max of five int a  int b  int c  int d int e       int large  max max a  b   max c d        return max large e       int min of five int a int b int c  int d int e       int small min min a b  min c d        return min small e       int main         int a  b  c  d e       scanf   d  d  d  d  d    amp a   amp b   amp c   amp d  amp e       int ans   max of five a  b  c  d  e       int ans1 min of five a b c d e       printf  Max  t d n   ans       printf  Min  t d   ans1        return 0

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int findMin int t1  int t2  int t3  int t4  int t5        int min       min   t1      if  t2  lt  min          min   t2      if  t3  lt  min          min   t3      if  t4  lt  min          min   t4      if  t5  lt  min          min   t5       return min        int findMax int t1  int t2  int t3  int t4  int t5        int max       max   t1      if  t2  gt  max          max   t2      if  t3  gt  max          max   t3      if  t4  gt  max          max   t4      if  t5  gt  max          max   t5       return max

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Let max will hold the maximum of 5 numbers  Assign the first number to max  Take the 2nd number and compare it with max if the the 2nd number is greater than max then assign it to max else do nothing  Next take the 3rd number and compare it with max   if the 3rd number is greater than max assign it to max else do nothing  Do the same for 4th and 5th number  Finally max will hold the maximum of 5 number

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Use a sorting network    include  lt iostream gt   include  lt utility gt   int main         int a  b  c  d  e      std  cin  gt  gt  a  gt  gt  b  gt  gt  c  gt  gt  d  gt  gt  e       if  a  lt  b  std  swap a  b       if  d  lt  e  std  swap d  e       if  c  lt  e  std  swap c  e       if  c  lt  d  std  swap c  d       if  b  lt  e  std  swap b  e       if  a  lt  d  std  swap a  d       if  a  lt  c  std  swap a  c       if  b  lt  d  std  swap b  d       if  b  lt  c  std  swap b  c        std  cout  lt  lt   largest      lt  lt  a  lt  lt    n       std  cout  lt  lt   smallest      lt  lt  e  lt  lt    n

[c++] Program to find largest and smallest among 5 numbers without using array

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