Middle of Three

Problem

Given three distinct numbers A, B and C. Find the number with value in middle (Try to do it with minimum comparisons).

Examples:

Example 1:

Input:
A = 978, B = 518, C = 300
Output:
518
Explanation:
Since 518>300 and 518<978, so 518 is the middle element.

Example 2:

Input:
A = 162, B = 934, C = 200
Output:
200
Exaplanation:
Since 200>162 && 200<934, So, 200 is the middle element.

Your task:

You don't need to read input or print anything.Your task is to complete the function middle() which takes three integers A,B and C as input parameters and returns the number which has middle value.

• Expected Time Complexity: $O(1)$
• Expected Auxiliary Space: $O(1)$

Constraints:

• $1<=A,B,C<=10^9$

A,B,C are distinct.

Solution

Python

def middle(self,A,B,C):
    if A > B:
        if A > C:
            if B > C:
                return B
            else:
                return C
        else:
            return A
    else:
        if B > C:
            if A > C:
                return A
            else:
                return C
        else:
            return B

Java

int middle(int A, int B, int C){
    if (A > B) {
        if (A > C) {
            if (B > C) {
                return B;
            } else {
                return C;
            }
        } else {
            return A;
        }
    } 
    else {
        if (B > C) {
            if (A > C) {e
                return A;
            } 
            else {
                return C;
            }
        } 
        else {
            return B;
        }
    }
}

C++

int middle(int A, int B, int C){
    if (A > B) {
        if (A > C) {
            if (B > C) {
                return B;
            } else {
                return C;
            }
        } 
        else {
            return A;
        }
    } 
    else {
        if (B > C) {
            if (A > C) {
                return A;
            } 
            else {
                return C;
            }
        } 
        else {
            return B;
        }
    }
}

C

int middle(int A, int B, int C){
    if (A > B) {
        if (A > C) {
            if (B > C) {
                return B;
            } else {
                return C;
            }
        } 
        else {
            return A;
        }
    } 
    else {
        if (B > C) {
            if (A > C) {
                return A;
            } 
            else {
                return C;
            }
        } 
        else {
            return B;
        }
    }
}

• Time Complexity: $O(1)$
• Auxiliary Space: $O(1)$