Q:

Compute the minimum (min) or maximum (max) of two integers without branching?

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YasminRadwan26

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2022-06-24

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Compute the minimum (min) or maximum (max) of two integers without branching?

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YasminRadwan26

2022-06-24

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Answer:

We can find the minimum (min) or maximum (max) number without the branching with the help of a bitwise operator.

Let’s assume “a” and “b” are integers numbers and “result” is another integer variable that contains the result of the
computation.

So to compute the minimum number we have to write the below expression.

result = b ^ ((a ^ b) & -(a < b)); // min(a, b)
In above expression,if a < b, then -( a < b) become -1, so it behave like below expression
result = b ^ ((a ^ b) & ~0);
result =  b ^ a ^ b; // b^b is zero
result = a ^ 0; // oring with 0 does not effect
result = a; //minimum number

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