Maximum PC

So you have two doubles, d1 and d2, that are initialized to the values of PI and E, respectively. Your program needs to swap the values so that d1 is E and d2 is PI. Simple enough right?

Oh, almost forgot, there's a bit of a catch. These are the only two variables that you can declare in your program. Yep, d1 and d2. That's it. Feel free to use any language. I'd love to see solutions in languages other than C++ and Java, especially C#, Python, Perl, VB and PHP.

BTW, a 'harder' solution does not use a pointer or reference of any kind either. A 'simple' solution does - I'll let others quible over whether a pointer or refernce should be considered a variable. If you don't get the hard solution, go ahead and post the simple one. I'll post both in a couple of days.

Backstory: Our local ACM chapter is preparing for the ACM Regional contest and one of my teammates thought he could stump me this morning with this problem. He is Chineese w/ an accent and crazy laugh.... "Larry, I can do this in C++, but you could never do this in Java. <smiles>Cause it is impossible to do it in Java!<crazy loud laugh - 2 minutes, 110 db, I'm not kidding>." I sat down for a minute and the simple solution took me about 3 minutes to which he carried on about the use of a reference. I had to take care of some business today, and while I was at the bank of all places, the answer occured to me and I implemented the 'hard' solution in 2 working lines of code (1 for declarations and one for the swapping). I taped the solution on the 'Problem of the Day' whiteboard. I can't wait to see his face in the morning.

Good luck and, if stumped, try going to the bank.

The simple solution is to swap the pointers from one to another ... if you are allowed to create a temporary pointer for the swap. Right?

The harder solution ... pass the variables (by value) to a method and swap them there. Since the method will create local variables to contain the passed arguments (ie., you don't declare these variables ... they are created by the method) ... you can swap them using the two local variables and calls to the original global variables d1 and d2.

I haven't had much coffee yet ... I could be wrong. And I realise I am taking some license with the 'don't declare more than 2 variables' rule.

Pseudocode:



The most intuitive way to perform that swap would be to swap the pointers of the global variables .. again, this depends on the language chosen.

This feels like cheating, though ... 'cause I do use two more variables ... I just don't declare them.

That could be a bit of a trap. Remember, the idea is to swap the values, not pointers. You should only need one. I did the simple using a Double reference.


Nope. Two variables total. The entire program.


Some?!

I came up with two easy methods, one really cheap and not really suitable and one realistic, and another one that only takes one line but is hard to read:

Sorry it's in C++ though.

Hey ... *I* didn't declare a new variable. I blame the method!

Haha... nice one, and yes, cheap seems like an appropriate term.

BTW, if you're going to use defines, why not just do a d1 = pi and d2 = e directly instead?!


Hmm.... I actually hadn't thought of this method which works if you're willing to throw away some rounding errors. Nice. A new method is added to the list.

Here's a big hint for the 'hard' solution....

So did you XOR'ed d1 and d2:



Is this right?

That is close.... you have a couple of issues to deal with still though. The ^ operator isn't going to like doubles for one thing.

What's the point?
Unless you're limited in memory and space, (like embedded programming) resorting to such tricks is pointless with today's optimising compilers.
Err, I am not british-- optimizing

True. But isn't that a little like asking, what is the point of learning assembly language, ISA's or anything but high-level languages because an optimizing compiler will handle these details anyways? Of course, someone has to write these automagick compilers and libs that we take for granted.

Just a little puzzle problem to keep the brain sharp.... if not, we'll eventually become VB programmers. Horror.

Really, I am just frustrated that I can't solve it.
:p

That is close.... you have a couple of issues to deal with still though. The ^ operator isn't going to like doubles for one thing. [/quote]





There, solved it!!!

Dude, what's up with the crazy voodoo looking avatar?!

My avatar is a Quintessons from The Transformers.
They are the Enforcers and they enslave both Autobots and Decepticons.
The face that you see is of DEATH.

lol... you need to cut back on something.

Dang, I wouldn't even have SEEN it without the hint (although the hint did give it away).