Help with Strings in C

Question

Given the char * variables name1 , name2 , and name3 , write a fragment of code that assigns the largest value to the variable max (assume all three have already been declared and have been assigned values).

I've tried and came up with this:

    if ((strcmp(name1,name2)>0)&&(strcmp(name1,name3)>0)){
max=name1;
}
else if ((strcmp(name2,name1)>0)&&(strcmp(name2,name3)>0)){
max=name2;
}
else if((strcmp(name3,name1)>0)&&(strcmp(name3,name2)>0)){
max=name3;
}
else if(strcmp(name3,name1)==0){
max=name1,name3;
}
else if (strcmp(name2,name1)==0){
max=name2,name1;
}
else if (strcmp(name2,name3)==0){
max=name2,name3;
}
else{
max=name1,name2,name3;
}

However, I get this error Your code is incorrect. You are not handling the situation where two or more strings are equal.

Solved...

The error message seems pretty clear. Look at your code carefully and consider what it does if all 3 strings are equal. (Among other cases) — David Gelhar
– David Gelhar, Commented Apr 21, 2010 at 3:55
If all three strings are equal then there would be no largest value... What am I missing... — DomX23
– DomX23, Commented Apr 21, 2010 at 4:07
What is the largest value in the set (10, 10, 10)? The smallest value? — Fred
– Fred, Commented Apr 21, 2010 at 4:19

Brian R. Bondy · Accepted Answer · 2010-04-21 04:27:12Z

1

~~strcmp returns 0 when your strings are equal~~

~~I'll leave it for you to figure out why you aren't handling it.~~

Edit:

Bob and Alice are 10 years old.
What is the max age?

Hint: it's not undefined.... it's 10.

edited Apr 21, 2010 at 4:27

answered Apr 21, 2010 at 3:53

Brian R. Bondy

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3 Comments

Marlon Over a year ago

100% agree with that statement!

DomX23 Over a year ago

Yeah and it returns a positive value if x>y in terms of strcmp(x,y).

DomX23 Over a year ago

Wow, I finally got it... I like how you guys make me solve the answer myself without providing code.

dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten · Accepted Answer · 2010-04-21 05:14:45Z

1

Watch out: strcmp does not do numeric comparison!

That is

strcmp("10","2")

returns a negative value, indicating that "2" is bigger than "10" which is almost certainly not what you want.

You probably want to convert the strings to numbers of some kind before comparing. Consider using sprintf or atoi or atof or strtod.

edited Apr 21, 2010 at 5:14

answered Apr 21, 2010 at 4:53

dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten

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