Question

Is there a more concise way to write the following C++ statements:

int max = 0;

int u = up();
if(u > max)
{
 max = u;
}

int d = down();
if(d > max)
{
max = d;
}

int r = right();
max = r > max ? r : max;  

Specifically is there a way to embed the assignment of the functions return inside the if statement/ternary operator?

Answer 1

Assuming that:

• The idea was to remove the local variables (i.e. you don’t need u, d, r later on)
• Evaluation order doesn’t matter

… then you can just use std::max:

int m = max(max(max(0, up()), down()), right());

If this is the return value of the function:

return max(max(max(0, up()), down()), right());

Note that that can evaluate the functions in any order, rather than the string up, down, right order in your original code.