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  3. Your mission, should you choose to accept it..

Your mission, should you choose to accept it..

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  • M Mladen Jankovic

    harold aptroot wrote:

    a * b * c == 0 (which is wrong in general, bonus points if you know why)

    [edit]Sh*t! Too late for the party :( [/edit]

    L Offline
    L Offline
    Lost User
    wrote on last edited by
    #14

    Or to put it differently, the ring Z/232Z has zero divisors because 232 is not a prime number.

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    • A AspDotNetDev

      Pfft, I don't even need a comparison:

      try
      {
      int x = 1 / a / b / c;
      }
      catch (DivideByZeroException)
      {
      // One of them was zero.
      }

      Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut!

      Sander RosselS Offline
      Sander RosselS Offline
      Sander Rossel
      wrote on last edited by
      #15

      My thought exactly! I don't think Harold would approve of it though :laugh:

      It's an OO world.

      public class Naerling : Lazy<Person>{
      public void DoWork(){ throw new NotImplementedException(); }
      }

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      • A AspDotNetDev

        Pfft, I don't even need a comparison:

        try
        {
        int x = 1 / a / b / c;
        }
        catch (DivideByZeroException)
        {
        // One of them was zero.
        }

        Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut!

        L Offline
        L Offline
        Lost User
        wrote on last edited by
        #16

        Ok you win :laugh:

        1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • L Lost User

          Point awarded :) Very good. I had a different one though, that used fewer operations, can you find that one?

          L Offline
          L Offline
          Luc Pattyn
          wrote on last edited by
          #17

          No problem, same principle, now taking advantage of the product having a limited number of factors:

          h(x) = (x | x>>8 | x>>16 | x>>24) & 0xFF

          and if ( h(a)*h(b)*h(c) == 0)... :)

          Luc Pattyn [My Articles] Nil Volentibus Arduum

          L A 2 Replies Last reply
          0
          • L Lost User

            .. is to write a replacement for if (a == 0 || b == 0 || c == 0), that - uses at most one comparison. - uses only integer arithmetic. - does not make assumptions about the values of a b and c, except that they are 32-bit 2's complement integers. This entirely useless challenge (is there any other kind?) was inspired by a question on a site that shall not be named, asking for a shorter way to write it. But then people started answering with a * b * c == 0 (which is wrong in general, bonus points if you know why) and (a | b | c) == 0 which is a nice try but tests whether all of them are zero instead of any of them. That inspired me to search for a solution like that, and I found 2, one of which uses only basic operators. Can you find it?

            M Offline
            M Offline
            Mladen Jankovic
            wrote on last edited by
            #18

            bloody hell. (a & b & c) == 0 ?

            L 1 Reply Last reply
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            • M Mladen Jankovic

              bloody hell. (a & b & c) == 0 ?

              L Offline
              L Offline
              Lost User
              wrote on last edited by
              #19

              What if they're all different powers of two?

              M 1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • L Lost User

                What if they're all different powers of two?

                M Offline
                M Offline
                Mladen Jankovic
                wrote on last edited by
                #20

                it won't work :)

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                • L Luc Pattyn

                  No problem, same principle, now taking advantage of the product having a limited number of factors:

                  h(x) = (x | x>>8 | x>>16 | x>>24) & 0xFF

                  and if ( h(a)*h(b)*h(c) == 0)... :)

                  Luc Pattyn [My Articles] Nil Volentibus Arduum

                  L Offline
                  L Offline
                  Lost User
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #21

                  Very clever! But I had fewer operators still, 12 in total if the function is inlined

                  L 1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • L Luc Pattyn

                    due to overflow a*b*c may result in false zeroes when a power of 2 aliases to zero (say a=2^16, b=2^16, c=1) For 32-bit integers the function

                    f(x) = x | x>>1 | x>>2 | ... | x>>31

                    calculates the next power of 2 minus 1, resulting in a non-zero and odd number for all non-zero integers. (add terms for wider integers, and add parentheses if you must). therefore f(a)*f(b)*f(c) is zero if and only if a*b*c is zero, and it doesn't suffer from overflow aliasing, as the lowest bit gets preserved by multiplication. BTW: To completely avoid overflow, one could also use

                    g(x) = f(x) & 1

                    :)

                    Luc Pattyn [My Articles] Nil Volentibus Arduum

                    A Offline
                    A Offline
                    AspDotNetDev
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #22

                    If we can use assembly instructions, we can compact your code using BSR or BSF. :)

                    Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut!

                    L 1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • A AspDotNetDev

                      If we can use assembly instructions, we can compact your code using BSR or BSF. :)

                      Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut!

                      L Offline
                      L Offline
                      Lost User
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #23

                      Ah yes, that was my "other" solution (the one that does not only use basic operators)

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                      • L Lost User

                        Very clever! But I had fewer operators still, 12 in total if the function is inlined

                        L Offline
                        L Offline
                        Luc Pattyn
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #24

                        12? that is a lot. Lets use the sign bit now:

                        if ( (a|-a)&(b|-b)&(c|-c) < 0 ) log("all non-zero");

                        :-D

                        Luc Pattyn [My Articles] Nil Volentibus Arduum

                        L A C 4 Replies Last reply
                        0
                        • L Luc Pattyn

                          No problem, same principle, now taking advantage of the product having a limited number of factors:

                          h(x) = (x | x>>8 | x>>16 | x>>24) & 0xFF

                          and if ( h(a)*h(b)*h(c) == 0)... :)

                          Luc Pattyn [My Articles] Nil Volentibus Arduum

                          A Offline
                          A Offline
                          AspDotNetDev
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #25

                          I think that since the cube root of Int32.MaxValue is greater than 1024, we can further reduce it using your same technique (10-bit chunks instead of 8-bit chunks):

                          if (((a | (a << 10) | (a << 20)) & 0xFF7) * ((b | (b << 10) | (b << 20)) & 0xFF7) * ((c | (c << 10) | (c << 20)) & 0xFF7) == 0) { }

                          Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut!

                          L A 2 Replies Last reply
                          0
                          • L Luc Pattyn

                            12? that is a lot. Lets use the sign bit now:

                            if ( (a|-a)&(b|-b)&(c|-c) < 0 ) log("all non-zero");

                            :-D

                            Luc Pattyn [My Articles] Nil Volentibus Arduum

                            L Offline
                            L Offline
                            Lost User
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #26

                            Ok you beat me ;P I had (-(a & (a - 1)) & .. etc, yours is obviously better

                            L 1 Reply Last reply
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                            • A AspDotNetDev

                              I think that since the cube root of Int32.MaxValue is greater than 1024, we can further reduce it using your same technique (10-bit chunks instead of 8-bit chunks):

                              if (((a | (a << 10) | (a << 20)) & 0xFF7) * ((b | (b << 10) | (b << 20)) & 0xFF7) * ((c | (c << 10) | (c << 20)) & 0xFF7) == 0) { }

                              Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut!

                              A Offline
                              A Offline
                              AspDotNetDev
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #27

                              Actually, I think bit shifting might do funny things depending on the sign bit, so instead of shifting by 20, might just want to shift by 14.

                              Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut!

                              1 Reply Last reply
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                              • A AspDotNetDev

                                I think that since the cube root of Int32.MaxValue is greater than 1024, we can further reduce it using your same technique (10-bit chunks instead of 8-bit chunks):

                                if (((a | (a << 10) | (a << 20)) & 0xFF7) * ((b | (b << 10) | (b << 20)) & 0xFF7) * ((c | (c << 10) | (c << 20)) & 0xFF7) == 0) { }

                                Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut!

                                L Offline
                                L Offline
                                Luc Pattyn
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #28

                                That technique is so outdated now. :laugh:

                                Luc Pattyn [My Articles] Nil Volentibus Arduum

                                A 1 Reply Last reply
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                                • L Luc Pattyn

                                  That technique is so outdated now. :laugh:

                                  Luc Pattyn [My Articles] Nil Volentibus Arduum

                                  A Offline
                                  A Offline
                                  AspDotNetDev
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #29

                                  Yep. :rolleyes:

                                  Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut!

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                                  0
                                  • L Lost User

                                    Ok you beat me ;P I had (-(a & (a - 1)) & .. etc, yours is obviously better

                                    L Offline
                                    L Offline
                                    Luc Pattyn
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #30

                                    :jig:

                                    Luc Pattyn [My Articles] Nil Volentibus Arduum

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                                    • L Luc Pattyn

                                      12? that is a lot. Lets use the sign bit now:

                                      if ( (a|-a)&(b|-b)&(c|-c) < 0 ) log("all non-zero");

                                      :-D

                                      Luc Pattyn [My Articles] Nil Volentibus Arduum

                                      A Offline
                                      A Offline
                                      AspDotNetDev
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #31

                                      Well done. :thumbsup:

                                      Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut!

                                      L 1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • A AspDotNetDev

                                        Well done. :thumbsup:

                                        Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut!

                                        L Offline
                                        L Offline
                                        Luc Pattyn
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #32

                                        Thanks. The nice thing about this approach is it works for all widths, and for any number of product factors, as long as they are all signed integers. :)

                                        Luc Pattyn [My Articles] Nil Volentibus Arduum

                                        1 Reply Last reply
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                                        • L Luc Pattyn

                                          12? that is a lot. Lets use the sign bit now:

                                          if ( (a|-a)&(b|-b)&(c|-c) < 0 ) log("all non-zero");

                                          :-D

                                          Luc Pattyn [My Articles] Nil Volentibus Arduum

                                          L Offline
                                          L Offline
                                          Lost User
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #33

                                          Wait a minute.. the challenge was for any zero (ie the reverse condition) Which is a trivial change to this solution, but still..

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