Determine the largest number among three numbers using C++

Question

How can I determine the largest number among three numbers using C++?

I need to simplify this

 w=(z>((x>y)?x:y)?z:((x>y)?x:y));

Answer 1

A variant on oisyn's answer (use an initializer list) and Bathesheba's answer (invoke no copies) is to use std::ref to create an initializer list of references, and then use std::max normally:

using std::ref;
w = std::max({ref(x), ref(y), ref(z)});

This is only advantageous if creating a reference is cheaper than creating a copy (and it isn't for primitives like int)

Demo