Can someone please explain why this worked?

public class Solution { public static int min(int a, int b, int c, int d) { int n, m, x; n = min(a,b); m = min(c,d); x = min(n,m); return x; } public static int min(int a, int b) { int small; if ( a < b) { small = a; } else { small = b; } return small; } public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception { System.out.println(min(-20, -10)); System.out.println(min(-20, -10, -30, -40)); System.out.println(min(-20, -10, -30, 40)); System.out.println(min(-40, -10, -30, 40)); } }

What Thomas said. The single equals (=) sign is the assignment operator and does not check equality. Anything on the left side will be assigned to the value on the right side. To check for equality you would need the double equals sign (==), which will return true if the objects are equal, or false otherwise. m1 = min(c,d) and m2 = min(a,b), you correctly read those 2 expressions; m1 = m2 uses the same exact operator and works exactly like the 2 prior ones.

u can also try this!! public class Solution { public static int min(int a, int b, int c, int d) { //write your code here if(a

It doesn't mean equal. It means to set m1 to m2's value because m2 is now effectively the smallest number as the condition before that was [if m2 < m1] It's an extra step for no reason though. Can just put return m2 if m2 is smaller and return m1 if m1 is smaller