Re: add missing elements and remove duplicates....and some more questions.

The do_it_all() functions in the OP and here use methods for determining the biggest and smallest numbers from the argument list that I've extracted and respectively named do_it_all_1() and do_it_all_2() below.

c:\@Work\Perl\monks\pritesh_ugrankar>perl -wMstrict -le
"do_it_all_1(1, 2, 3);
 do_it_all_2(0, 1, 2, 3);
 ;;
 ;;
 sub do_it_all_1 {
   print qq{do_it_all_1: (@_)};
   ;;
   my $biggest = shift @_;
   foreach my $num (@_) {
       if ($num > $biggest) {
           $biggest = $num;
       }
   }
   ;;
   my $smallest = shift @_;
   foreach my $smallnum (@_) {
       if ($smallnum < $smallest) {
           $smallest = $smallnum;
       }
   }
   ;;
   print qq{smallest == $smallest,  biggest == $biggest};
   }
 ;;
 sub do_it_all_2 {
   print qq{do_it_all_2: (@_)};
   ;;
   my $biggest = @_;
   foreach my $bignum (@_) {
       if ($bignum > $biggest)
       {
           $biggest = $bignum;
       }
   }
   ;;
   my $smallest = @_;
   foreach my $smallnum (@_) {
       if ($smallnum < $smallest) {
           $smallest = $smallnum;
       }
   }
   ;;
   print qq{smallest == $smallest,  biggest == $biggest};
   }
"
do_it_all_1: (1 2 3)
smallest == 2,  biggest == 3
do_it_all_2: (0 1 2 3)
smallest == 0,  biggest == 4
[download]

Questions:

Why does the call do_it_all_1(1, 2, 3) return 2 as the smallest number in the argument list?
Why does do_it_all_2(0, 1, 2, 3) return 4 as the biggest?

(The foregoing is intended as propaganda for a Test::More development approach that might have uncovered these inconsistencies earlier.)

One other small perplexity. You describe the feedback given you regarding the code of the OP as "[t]hat I did not try to address the issue, but circumvented the issue ..." But the "issue" seems to be described in the paragraph beginning "Given a random series of numbers, ...", and your code seems to address this requirement statement directly. (Others have touched on this.) Can you clarify the dissatisfaction of your instructor/TA? It doesn't make sense to me. (The whole business about Linux Mint/Ubuntu/whatever seems entirely irrelevant.)

Give a man a fish: <%-{-{-{-<

Comment on Re: add missing elements and remove duplicates....and some more questions. Select or Download Code

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Re^2: add missing elements and remove duplicates....and some more questions. by pritesh_ugrankar (Monk) on Apr 24, 2017 at 13:31 UTC
Hi, I think for some reason, it's taking the scalar value of the array as the biggest value. I could be wrong, but just a hunch. I tried again and my script seems to work ok. `use warnings; use strict; my @arr = (10,10,20,0x47,1,30,45,45); sub do_it_all { my $biggest = shift @_; foreach my $num (@_) { if ($num > $biggest) { $biggest = $num; } } my $smallest = shift @_; foreach my $smallnum (@_) { if ($smallnum < $smallest) { $smallest = $smallnum; } } print "\$smallest = $smallest\t\$biggest = $biggest\n"; my @unique = ($smallest..$biggest); print "@unique\n"; } &do_it_all(@arr);` [download] I added the `print "\$smallest = $smallest\t\$biggest = $biggest\n";` line for verification, and the output I get is the following: `C:\>perl no_sort.pl $smallest = 1 $biggest = 71 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 2 +7 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 5 +0 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71` [download] Thinkpad T430 with Ubuntu 16.04.2 running perl 5.24.1 thanks to plenv!!	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: add missing elements and remove duplicates....and some more questions. by AnomalousMonk (Archbishop) on Apr 24, 2017 at 16:34 UTC
Hi pritesh_ugrankar. If this was posted by you, then you have recognized the problem I wanted to bring to your attention. If it was not, please run the `do_it_all()` function given here with the arguments `(1, 2, 3, 4)` and see what you get. And just as a general observation, code that looks great and doesn't work is worthless. I've written a lot of code that looked wonderful, but... Give a man a fish: `<%-{-{-{-<`	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^4: add missing elements and remove duplicates....and some more questions. by pritesh_ugrankar (Monk) on Apr 24, 2017 at 20:04 UTC
Hi, No that was not me. And I now understand what has happened. So I have changed the code. And you are right, just because my code looks good does not mean it's good. `use strict; use warnings; my @arr = (1, 2, 3, 4); sub do_it_all { my $biggest = $_[0] ; foreach my $num (@_) { if ($num > $biggest) { $biggest = $num; } } my $smallest = $_[0]; foreach my $smallnum (@_) { if ($smallnum < $smallest) { $smallest = $smallnum; } } print "\$smallest = $smallest\t\$biggest = $biggest\n"; my @unique = ($smallest..$biggest); print "@unique\n"; } &do_it_all(@arr);` [download] And it now correctly prints: `C:\>perl anomalous_func.pl $smallest = 1 $biggest = 4 1 2 3 4` [download] Update: I have updated the main thread with your observation. Thank you very much. I did a stupid mistake that should have been avoided at all costs. Thinkpad T430 with Ubuntu 16.04.2 running perl 5.24.1 thanks to plenv!!	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^5: add missing elements and remove duplicates....and some more questions. by Marshall (Canon) on Apr 25, 2017 at 15:10 UTC
Re^6: add missing elements and remove duplicates....and some more questions. by pritesh_ugrankar (Monk) on Apr 25, 2017 at 18:48 UTC
Re^3: add missing elements and remove duplicates....and some more questions. by Anonymous Monk on Apr 24, 2017 at 14:15 UTC
The code looks fine. During edge testing, am having to make 2 line changes. `my @arr = (1,10,10,20,0x47,30,45,45); sub do_it_all { my $biggest = $_[0]; ... my $smallest = $_[0]; ... }` [download]	[reply] [d/l]