MinMax

2 minutes to read

We are given the following website to write a coding solution:

MinMax 1

Problem

We need to write a program that is able to take a list of numbers separated by spaces and print the minimum and maximum values. For example:

"4.23 0.25 2.4 7.35 3.78" -> "0.25 7.35"

Solution

Since we are allowed to use C, C++, Python and Rust, let’s write a solution on every language, just because.

C

#include <float.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

int main() {
  // take in the numbers
  char input[4096] = { 0 };
  fgets(input, sizeof(input), stdin);
  double numbers[1024] = { 0 };
  
  char* token = strtok(input, " ");
  int i = 0;

  while (token != NULL) {
    numbers[i++] = atof(token);
    token = strtok(NULL, " ");
  }

  int length = i;

  // calculate answer
  double min = DBL_MAX;
  double max = DBL_MIN;

  for (i = 0; i < length; i++) {
    min = numbers[i] < min ? numbers[i] : min;
    max = numbers[i] > max ? numbers[i] : max;
  }

  char answer_min[1024] = { 0 };
  snprintf(answer_min, sizeof(answer_min), "%.2lf", min);

  i = strlen(answer_min) - 1;
  while (answer_min[i] == '0') {
    answer_min[i--] = '\0';
  }

  char answer_max[1024] = { 0 };
  snprintf(answer_max, sizeof(answer_max), "%.2lf", max);

  i = strlen(answer_max) - 1;
  while (answer_max[i] == '0') {
    answer_max[i--] = '\0';
  }

  // print answer
  printf("%s\n%s\n", answer_min, answer_max);

  return 0;
}

C++

#include <iostream>
#include <limits>
#include <sstream>
#include <vector>

int main() {
  // take in the numbers
  std::string s;
  std::vector<double> numbers;
  double n;
  
  std::getline(std::cin, s);
  std::istringstream iss(s);

  while (iss >> n) {
    numbers.push_back(n);
  }

  // calculate answer
  double min = std::numeric_limits<double>::max();
  double max = std::numeric_limits<double>::min();

  for (double n : numbers) {
    min = n < min ? n : min;
    max = n > max ? n : max;
  }

  // print answer
  std::cout << min << "\n" << max << std::endl;

  return 0;
}

Python

# take in the numbers
numbers = list(map(float, input().split()))

# calculate answer
answer = f'{min(numbers)}\n{max(numbers)}'

# print answer
print(answer)

Rust

use std::io;

fn main() {
    // take in the numbers
    let mut input = String::new();

    io::stdin()
        .read_line(&mut input)
        .expect("Failed to read line");

    let numbers: Vec<f64> = input
        .split(" ")
        .map(|s| s.parse().expect("Please enter a valid number"))
        .collect();

    // calculate answer
    let min = numbers
        .iter()
        .min_by(|a, b| a.partial_cmp(b).expect("Minimum not found"))
        .unwrap();

    let max = numbers
        .iter()
        .max_by(|a, b| a.partial_cmp(b).expect("Maximum not found"))
        .unwrap();

    let answer = format!("{}\n{}", min, max);

    // print answer
    println!("{}", answer);
}

Flag

Using any of these programs, we are able to solve the chalenge and capture the flag:

HTB{aLL_maX3d_0uT_but_n3v3r_l3ft_0ut}