3 numbers in ascending order WITHOUT the use of conditional statements in Java. As in I can't use if statements at all

Question

My code looks like this so far:

public class ThreeSort {
    public static void main(String[] args) {

        int num1 = Integer.parseInt(args[0]);
        int          


        

Answer 1

Put them in a List and sort it...

List<Integer> ints = new LinkedList<>();
ints.add(Integer.parseInt(args[0]));
ints.add(Integer.parseInt(args[1]));
ints.add(Integer.parseInt(args[2]));

Collections.sort(ints); // smallest -> greatest
System.out.println(ints);

Collections.reverse(ints); // greatest -> smallest
System.out.println(ints);

Answer 2

in this case there is a simple algorithm for it:

mid = Math.max(Math.min(num1,num2), Math.min(Math.max(num1,num2),num3));

Also as the operator ^ denotes bitwise xor. so another way is:

mid=num1^num2^num3^max^min;

EXAMPLE:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    System.out.println(mid(70, 3, 10));
}

static int mid(int a, int b, int c) {
    int mx = Math.max(Math.max(a, b), c);
    int mn = Math.min(Math.min(a, b), c);
    int md = a ^ b ^ c ^ mx ^ mn;
    return md;
}

OUTPUT: 10.

Also as OldCurmudgeon said below you can calculate the mid with below formula:

int mid = num1 + num2 + num3 - min - max;

Answer 3

int mid = num1 + num2 + num3 - min - max;

Sorry for briefness - posted from my phone.

It must be self-evident that the middle number is the sum of the three numbers minus the max minus the min. Would also work if max == mid or max == min or even both.

Answer 4

Assuming this is some kind of puzzle/homework are you allowed to use the ternary operator?

int[] ints = {3, 1, 2};
int min = ints[0] <= ints[1] && ints[0] <= ints[2]
          ? ints[0]
          : ints[1] <= ints[0] && ints[1] <= ints[2]
            ? ints[1]
            : ints[2];

Answer 5

This is how I would implement three_sort without any if statements or ternary operators. You would have to adapt this to your language of choice.

def two_sort(a, b):
    small = int(a < b)  * a + int(a >= b) * b
    large = int(a >= b) * a + int(a < b)  * b
    return small, large

def three_sort(a, b, c):
    a, b = two_sort(a, b)
    a, c = two_sort(a, c)
    b, c = two_sort(b, c)
    return a, b, c

for a more general solution:

from random    import randint

def two_sort(a, b):
    small = int(a < b)  * a + int(a >= b) * b
    large = int(a >= b) * a + int(a < b)  * b
    return small, large

    return li[-1]

def n_sort(li):
    for _ in li:
        for i, _ in enumerate(li[:-1]):
            li[i], li[i+1] = two_sort(li[i], li[i+1])
    return li

N = 10
li = [randint(0, 1000) for _ in range(N)]
print(N_Sort(N)(*li))

Answer 6

public class ThreeSort {
    public static void main(String[] args) {

        // command-line input
        int a = Integer.parseInt(args[0]);
        int b= Integer.parseInt(args[1]);
        int c = Integer.parseInt(args[2]);


        // compute the order

        int max=Math.max(Math.max(a,b),c);
        int min =Math.min(Math.min(a,b ), c);
        int middle = a + b + c - max - min;


        // output in ascending order

        System.out.println(min+"\n" + middle+ "\n"+ max);

    }
}