Finding the lowest number of a certain input

Finding the smallest integer

Hi,

I've just started programming a few weeks ago and i have a problem which involves me finding the lowest number. That is, if the input is 123 12 1342 1 the program should print out the lowest number, ie. 1 in this example.

Could anyone please lend me some advice on how to go about

solving the problem. I have been able to find the min of set

amount of numbers (like the minimum of 2/3/4 numbers) , but i have no idea how to go about solving

the problem where the size of the numbers inputted varies.

sorry in advance if some of it doesnt make sense....its a bit hard to explain.

Thanks in advance,
Theorbb

Keep a variable called 'currentSmallestNumber'

Code:

/*assume that an array with some ten elements in different order. finding the smallest among them*/ small <- first element of array for i=1 till array size - 1 if small > ith element of array then small <- ith element of array end if loop print small

ssharish2005

could you please expand?....i dont really know what you mean, sorry.

my previous post was all about the pesudo code. u can actually convert that into the code. i think u dint get any of those words. let me explain u

Code:

assume array of 6 elements [ 10 3 5 1 29 20] assume first elemenst of the array is the smalest of all elements. small <- 10; compare the small element with other elements of the array. for(i=1//because first is already small assumption;i<6;i++) compare the small with all other elements if(small > ith element) store the ith element in the small overwritting the older value next time the loop goes back it check with the updated small value

hope this helps u

ssharish2005

Hi!

I'm new to this too but it seemed like a good practice exercise, so I toyed around with it a bit and this is what I came up with, just using the basics.

Code:

#include <stdio.h> int n;//how many numbers int s=999999;//smallest number (This number must be bigger than the biggest number to be entered. int main() { int x;//inputted number int y;//for loop counter int z[n]; n=1; for (y=0;y<n;y++) { scanf("%d", &x);//Input x here with scanf if entering numbers one by one. //Input 0 to break the loop if (x != 0) { //If loop is not broken... z[n]=x;//Set number entered to z[n]... if (z[n]<s) {//If new number is smaller than smallest... s=z[n];//New number becomes smallest... } n++;//n is incremented by one allowing the loop to continue. } } printf("%d is the smallest number.", s);//Once a zero is entered, smallest number is displayed. getchar(); getchar(); }

It's not perfect, but provided the user is entering the numbers it works... More or less.

Anyway it was fun bending my mind around all the variables.

And now it's bedtime.

:D

-James-

> could you please expand?
Well no, not until you provide some code to show what you can actually achieve yourself.

I mean, just reading input and printing it out would be a start.
Then move onto comparing the current number with the previous number (say).

Kazmeister's answer shows the basic idea, but has too many bugs to be actually run.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Salem

> could you please expand?
Well no, not until you provide some code to show what you can actually achieve yourself.

well sorry for asking Mr.Poseidon - "God of the C".....because i can do SOOO much with the knowledge of keeping a variable called 'currentSmallestNumber'.

But, thanks ssharish2005 and Kazmeister, i think im getting the logic behind how to go about the problem.

You're an idiot if you can't figure out from "Keep a variable called 'currentSmallestNumber'" that you need to oh, I don't know... STORE THE SMALLEST NUMBER.

You fail at basic problem solving. You also fail common sense.

Quzah.

Perhaps you should post next time what you've actually managed to do yourself if you want some meaningful help.

Sure, anyone can post lots of waffle about "I'm a noob" and "I'm stuck", and sure someone will happen along a spoon-feed you the answer, and you'll go away happy and think you've learnt something.

But you won't have really....

Well that depends, are you actually going to post your answer for all to see, or are you just going to take the answer and hand it in - bugs and all?

Nah, you won't do that, you don't have the stones to post any of your code in a forum - hell, I doubt you've ever written any yourself.

is this the answer?

Code:

#inlude <stdio.h> int main () { int counter; int number[5] = {10, 21, 29,78,3};//your input can be different, then try to convert codes int min; min = number[0];//or initialize to a very big number for ( counter = 0; counter < 5; counter++ ){ if ( number[i] < min ){ min = number[i]; } } printf ("%d\n", min); }

Close, but a few errors. Actually, one compile error, and one optimization tip. For the sake of the original poster, I won't point them out. If he can't identify the problem, then he should take up something else. The logic you have is correct, though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by quzah

You're an idiot if you can't figure out from "Keep a variable called 'currentSmallestNumber'" that you need to oh, I don't know... STORE THE SMALLEST NUMBER.

You fail at basic problem solving. You also fail common sense.

Quzah.

You seem bitter. Is there anything you wish to share with the group?

Quote:

Originally Posted by SlyMaelstrom

Close, but a few errors. Actually, one compile error, and one optimization tip. For the sake of the original poster, I won't point them out. If he can't identify the problem, then he should take up something else. The logic you have is correct, though.

I counted 5 errors. Even after I corrected them, the code doesn't work.

Okay, make that 6 errors. After I corrected them all, I got the correct output.

If you use int main() you should put return 0; at the end of code

Quote:

If you use int main() you should put return 0; at the end of code

And if you use void main(), you should use int main(). :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by cdalten

I counted 5 errors. Even after I corrected them, the code doesn't work.

Maybe you should count the correct code, then. I was talking to the post right before me. He asks if his code was correct, I said it had one error. Actually it has two, as I didn't see he wrote #inlude instead of #include.

There would really be no logic to me talking about anything but the post right above me without quoting text. It also wouldn't be to smart to say something was close to correct when other good programmers has already said it isn't.

Not cool.

Sorry to go off topic, but something needs to be said. I'd use a quote but I can't remember how off-hand. I guess that makes me an idiot, too. But no matter, the people I'm speaking to will know who they are. If it doesn't apply to you just ignore the following.

Hey now come on fellas, there's no need to get nasty. Believe it or not everybody's gotta start somewhere.

And honestly, how would you like it if you brought your car into the shop and said my car's running like garbage, but I want to fix it myself, and the mechanic replied "Fix the engine" ?

Not very helpful, if you aren't a mechanic, is it?

Now I agree that the best way to learn is often by research, trial, and error, but there's no need to attack someone for asking for help, even if they don't immediately grasp the concept.

But it's not like this BS only happens in this forum, no matter where you go you'll find the same thing. Someone asks for help, and some know-it-all (fill in the blank) wants to go and call them stupid and/or newb and/or any other number of insulting terms. Then the person who asked gives up on using the forums for what they were meant for. You see it all the time. Enough, already.

I don't care how good you are at anything. If you aren't willing to help someone who asks for help, just keep your mouth shut and move on.

Now some code to reflect on...

Code:

#include <stdio.h> int salemismean=1; int quzahismean=1; int abadnamecaller=1; int people=1; int actuallytryingtohelp=1; int peoplearecool; char pricks[7]="pricks"; int main() { if (salemismean==1 && (quzahismean==1 && abadnamecaller==1)) { printf("Ignore know-it-all %s.\n\n", pricks); } if (people==actuallytryingtohelp) { peoplearecool=1; printf("There's plenty of helpful people out there."); } getchar(); getchar(); return(0); }

Error check that.

Salem and Quzah, you should be ashamed of yourselves.

Next thing you know, people will be throwing feces at each other...

-James-

And by the way... My code may be chunky and ugly and entirely terrible... But it does work. Unless of course the smallest number is 0, or the biggest number is bigger than 999,999 (Which is really big... And you could set it higher.) It does compile and it does run and it does display the smallest number entered. And I've only been programming in C for four days. :p

Quote:

Originally Posted by Salem

Nah, you won't do that, you don't have the stones to post any of your code in a forum - hell, I doubt you've ever written any yourself.

Trying to figure out how to use arrays.

Code:

#include <stdio.h> #include <ctype.h> int main(int argc, char **argv) { char string[256]; printf( "Please enter a long string: " ); fgets ( string, 256, stdin ); int number1; number1 = &string[10] - &string[1]; if (number1 == 9) { number1 = 1; } printf( "the difference is, '%d'", number1 ); //getchar(); return 0; }

and i wrote something to find the max of two numbers and four numbers.

Code:

#include <stdio.h> #include "tests05.h" int maxOf2(int, int); int maxOf4(int, int, int, int); int main (int argc, char** argv) { if ((maxOf2 (TEST1_A, TEST1_B) == RESULT1) && (maxOf2 (TEST2_A, TEST2_B) == RESULT2) && (maxOf2 (TEST3_A, TEST3_B) == RESULT3)) { printf("maxOf2 passed test cases\n"); } else { printf("maxOf2 failed test cases\n"); } if ((maxOf4 (TEST4_A, TEST4_B, TEST4_C, TEST4_D) == RESULT4) && (maxOf4 (TEST5_A, TEST5_B, TEST5_C, TEST5_D) == RESULT5) && (maxOf4 (TEST6_A, TEST6_B, TEST6_C, TEST6_D) == RESULT6)) { printf("maxOf4 passed test cases\n"); } else { printf("maxOf4 failed test cases\n"); } return 0; } int max0f2 (number1, number2) { if (number1 > number2) { return number1; } else { return number2; } } int maxOf4 (number1, number2, number3, number4) { if ((number1 > number2) && (number1 > number3) && (number1 > number4)) { return number1; } else if ((number2 > number1) && (number2 > number3) && (number2 > number4)) { return number2; } else if ((number3 > number1) && (number3 > number2) && (number3 > number4)) { return number3; } else { return number4; } }

that's what i had written before i came across these forums....as u can see the way i did it, it would not have worked with finding the smallest number out of N elements, hence i ASKED.

> but i have no idea how to go about solving
But you already had
> and i wrote something to find the max of two numbers and four numbers.

So really, what was the problem with having
int currentNumber;
int currentSmallestNumber;
and a bit of logic around calling max0f2(currentNumber,currentSmallestNumber);

Not that writing another function called minOf2() would have been a better idea at this point.

> fgets ( string, 256, stdin );
> int number1;
> number1 = &string[10] - &string[1];
C doesn't (yet) support mixing declarations and statements.
Did you use a C++ compiler to compile this code?

> int max0f2 (number1, number2)
Where are the types here?
int max0f2 (int number1, int number2)

@ Kazmeister
> My code may be chunky and ugly and entirely terrible... But it does work
Bull........ does it work.

Code:

int n;//how many numbers <--- This is initialised to 0 int main() { int z[n]; <-- Wow, that's right, a zero length array ... z[n]=x; <-- stomp stomp stomp, merrily down the yellow brick road...

You must be confusing bug-free with "works for me".
Sure, on your machine with just a few input numbers you might get lucky.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kazmeister

And honestly, how would you like it if you brought your car into the shop and said my car's running like garbage, but I want to fix it myself, and the mechanic replied "Fix the engine" ?

Not very helpful, if you aren't a mechanic, is it?

Horrible analogy. It's not even close to what happened here. It's more like:

"Hi, I have to start a car."
"Turn the key."
"What?! You won't do it for me? How am I supposed to know what a key is?!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kazmeister

Salem and Quzah, you should be ashamed of yourselves.

You seem to be confusing me with someone who gives a ........ what you think. Be sure not to make that same mistake again.

Quzah.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Salem>
fgets ( string, 256, stdin );

> int number1;
> number1 = &string[10

- &string[1];
C doesn't (yet) support mixing declarations and statements.
Did you use a C++ compiler to compile this code?

so how would i go about finding the difference in size between 2 elements in a array?...and then find the minimum difference between those elements?

should i create a loop which finds the difference and then puts it into another array, lets say Small[N], and then do the whole pseudo code thing to find the smallest number?

but, the problem here is i dont know the proper way, since you just told me that

number1 = &string[10] - &string[1];

is 'supposedly' not possible (compiler did not give me any errors).

im using a program called cygwin to compile.

A 'mixed declaration' is you scattering the definition of your variables throughout the code block, rather than at the top of the block. This isn't supported in C prior to C99, which very very few C compilers, if any, fully implement. If it does work, you're either compiling as C++, which is what Salem just asked you, or more than likely, not a feature of the language, but a feature of your compiler.

You compare elements just like you any other variable. You know how to stick a value in a variable, right? You know how to stick a value in an array, right?

Code:

int x, y[2]; x = 1; y[ 0 ] = 2;

An example of both. Now then, you know how to get a value of a variable right? And you know how to get the value at a specific index, right?

Code:

int x = 5, y[2] = { 1, 0 }, z; z = x; z = y[ 1 ];

An example of both. Now then, you know how to compare two variables, right?

Code:

if( x < z )

An example of it. Surely you can figure out the final step missing from this illustration...

How to compare two elements of an array? Think. It's not hard.

Quzah.

Quote:

Originally Posted by quzah

How to compare two elements of an array? Think. It's not hard.

Quzah.

maybe not hard for you, since u have been programming for five years...ive been programming for how long?...three weeks. whats easy for you can be difficult to grasp for others.

but thanks anyways, so i store the value of the element into a variable (eg z and x) then do the... if (x < z) then keep the x as currentSmallestNumber.

int array1[4];
int array2[4];

>array1[1]<array2[1]

compares the second element of array1 with the second element of array2

Quote:

Originally Posted by theorbb

maybe not hard for you, since u have been programming for five years...ive been programming for how long?...three weeks.

What Quzah is trying to teach you is a very valuable lesson for a programmer. There are two kinds of problems you're going to run into as a programmer. Logical problems and syntactical problems. Now, I'm sure, if you thought about it for 10 seconds, you could figure out how to compare two elements of an array. That's assuming of course you know the syntax well. You clearly don't.

Now, this is what Quzah wants to teach you. For as long as you're going to be a programmer, you're going to run into syntax problems. Languages change, syntax changes... you can be the best programmer in the world and still run into a problem where you simply don't know the operator character or the function name or the keyword. It's up to you as the programmer to find that syntax though. There are dozens of references on the internet for comparing elements in an array. Why bother posting a message and waiting for an answer from someone, you might as well look it up yourself. As a programmer, being able to reference syntax and read documentation is a key skill. You have to learn it eventually, so start as early as you can.

Oh and I'm pretty sure Quzah has been programmer for much longer than 5 years.