Minimum of three numbers - bug

Question about the task

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Hi; Can anyone point out the mistake in this code?

package com.codegym.task.task02.task0216; /* Minimum of three numbers */ public class Solution { public static int min(int a, int b, int c) { //write your code here if (a < b && a < c){ return a; } else if (b < c && b < a) { return b; } else if (c < b && c < a) { return c; } } } public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception { System.out.println(min(1, 2, 3)); System.out.println(min(-1, -2, -3)); System.out.println(min(3, 5, 3)); System.out.println(min(5, 5, 10)); } }

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Ritwik Joshi

Level 3 , Gurgaon, India

16 December 2018, 20:00

useful

You can include the equality in your first two conditions too.

a <= b

This will not only check for equality but also completely eliminate the need for a third condition. Also, for single line statements after the if condition, you can do away with curly braces { }. This will eliminate a bit of complexity and help in avoiding mistakes with extra or less brackets. Also, it makes the code more readable. Another point, related to readability is to place your opening and closing braces symmetrically. You can either close them under their corresponding opening or as per your code blocks. Whatever style you follow, keep it consistent in your entire code.

Xubres

Level 16 , Uranus, Space

8 December 2018, 14:52

What happens if they are equal?

Guadalupe Gagnon

Level 37 , Tampa, United States

7 December 2018, 15:18

Reading your code it has 3 if statements: 1) if a is less than b and a is less than c then return a 2) else if b is less than c and b is less than a then return b 3) else if c is less than b and c is less than a then return c lets plug in a= 1, b =2, and c = 3: 1) is 1 less than 2 = true && is 1 less than 3 = true A will be returned lets plug is a = 1, b = 2, and c = 1: 1) is 1 less than 2 = true && is 1 less than 1 = false go to next line 2) is 2 less than 1 = false go to next line 3) is 1 less than 2 = true && is 1 less than 1 = false go to next line but there is no next line and that leaves a case where nothing could be returned, which is not allowed in java. You need to add in code that checks to see if numbers could be equal to each other, this should fix your problem, along with removing the extra } on line either 17 (or 18).

Amartyanil Chattopadhyay

Level 3

16 December 2018, 15:05

What is wrong in this code then?

package com.codegym.task.task02.task0216;

/*
Minimum of three numbers

*/
public class Solution {
    public static int min(int a, int b, int c) {
        //write your code here
        if (a < b && a < c){
            return a;
        } else if (b < c && b < a) {
            return b;
        } else if (c < b && c < a) {
            return c;
        }
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        System.out.println(min(1, 2, 3));
        System.out.println(min(-1, -2, -3));
        System.out.println(min(3, 5, 3));
        System.out.println(min(5, 5, 10));
    }

}

It says that a return statement is missing from line 17. But I had already put them in conditional statements.

Guadalupe Gagnon

Level 37 , Tampa, United States

16 December 2018, 18:52

You didn't change your code. Your code is not checking for equal values. If you pass in the less than and greater than operators will return false if the numbers are equal. This means, like i said in my first post, that if you pass in values that are the smallest but equal, like 1, 2, 1, that all of your if statements will return false. Change your code to say (for the three separate if statements) if a is less than or equal to b and a is less than or equal to c then return a.

if (a <= b && a <= c)

Amartyanil Chattopadhyay

Level 3

26 December 2018, 09:55

Hi; I tried this new code and this passed the testing.

package com.codegym.task.task02.task0216;

/*
Minimum of three numbers

*/
public class Solution {
    public static int min(int a, int b, int c) {
        //write your code here
        int minimum = 0;
        if (a <= b && a <= c) {
            minimum = a;
        } else if (b <= c && b <= a) {
            minimum = b;
        } else if (c <= b && c <= a) {
            minimum = c;
        }
       return minimum;
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        System.out.println(min(1, 2, 3));
        System.out.println(min(-1, -2, -3));
        System.out.println(min(3, 5, 3));
        System.out.println(min(5, 5, 10));
    }

}

By the way, why did I have to initialize a separate variable for this? I tried doing without initializing the "minimum" variable but it did not work.

Khurram

Level 16 , Lahore, Pakistan

7 December 2018, 06:18

useful

you have an extra "}" at line 18, both min and main method should be inside the braces of Solution class also remove the last if condition at line 14, just let it be else the return type of the method is int so by placing the return statements inside if blocks, there is a chance that the method will not return anything if the conditions are not true.