Help determining error in code

Question about the task

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Can someone help me determine what I have done wrong and why this will not execute properly? I have also tried having just an else clause rather than the else if( condition ) clause but that also did not fix the problem.

Use the keyboard to enter three numbers a, b, and c (the lengths of the sides of the proposed triangle).
Determine whether a triangle with these sides can exist.
Display the result as follows:
"The triangle is possible." - if a triangle with these sides could exist.
"The triangle is not possible." - if a triangle with these sides cannot exist.

Hint:
A triangle can exist only if the sum of two of its sides is greater than the third side.
You need to compare each side with the sum of the other two.
If even one side is larger or equal to the sum of the other two sides, then no such triangle exists.

Requirements:

The program should read three numbers from the keyboard.
The program should display text on the screen according to the task conditions.
If a triangle with the specified sides could exist, you need to display: "The triangle is possible."
If a triangle with the specified sides cannot exist, you need to display: "The triangle is not possible."

package com.codegym.task.task04.task0415; /* Rule of the triangle */ import java.io.*; import java.util.Scanner; public class Solution { public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception { //write your code here Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in); int a = sc.nextInt(); int b = sc.nextInt(); int c = sc.nextInt(); if (a+b > c || b+c > a || a+c > b){ System.out.println("The triangle is possible."); } else if (c >= a+b || a >= b+c || b >= a+c) { System.out.println("The triangle is not possible."); } } }

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Guadalupe Gagnon

Level 37 , Tampa, United States

25 October 2019, 13:37

#1 the way that the logical OR (the double bars used if your if statements: || ) works is each equation evaluates in turn from left to right ONLY if the one before it is false. The first instance that returns true and the next equation will not be considered. The first if block that you have, if any of those are true then the whole statement is true. This is a problem because the triangle can't exist if any of those are false. #2 The way that if chains (where you have if-else if-else if etc) work is similar to logical OR, the first if that is true will stop the chain and the rest of the if's will not be checked. if you enter any three numbers you can think of (other than 0,0,0), the first if will always be true and this program will output "The triangle is possible." TIP: you don't need to do this:

if(a+b > c) // do something
else if ( c >= a+b) //do something

these two statements are polar opposites. If the first one is true then the second will always be false, and if the first one is false the second will always be true. You should get in the habit of not doing this, this code works the same way but is more efficient:

if(a+b > c) //do something
else // do something

Just beware that these are not polar opposite:

if (a > b) // do something
else if (a < b) // do something

There is a third option in that (a == b), and is a common bug that programmers forget this.

Joshua Ingersoll

Level 5 , Brighton, United States

29 October 2019, 17:28

Ohh, I see what I did incorrectly, thank you very much for taking the time to show me.