Mastering C: Writing a Program to Analyze Three Integer Inputs

How to Write a C Program for Input and Analysis of Three Integers

Introduction to C Programming

C programming is a fundamental aspect of computer science, and understanding how to write and run C programs provides a solid foundation. This guide will walk you through creating a C program that takes three integers as input from the keyboard, performs some basic operations, and then displays the sum, average, product, and smallest/largest values.

Step-by-Step Guide to Create the C Program

This section will walk you through each step of creating the C program for input and analysis of three integers.

Including Necessary Libraries

Start by including the necessary libraries. The iostream library from the C standard library is used for input and output operations.

#include iostream

Declaring Variables

Declare three integer variables to hold the user-imputed values.

int num1, num2, num3;

Prompting for Input

Prompt the user to enter three integers and store them in the variables using the appropriate input function.

std::cout "Enter three integers: ";
std::cin num1 num2 num3;

Performing Calculations

Calculate the sum of the three integers.

Calculate the average by dividing the sum by 3.0 to ensure a floating-point result.

Compute the product of the three integers.

int sum num1 num2 num3;
double average static_cast(sum) / 3.0;
int product num1 * num2 * num3;

Determining the Smallest and Largest Numbers

Initialize variables to hold the smallest and largest values with the value of the first integer.

Use conditional statements to compare and update the smallest and largest values.

int smallest num1;
int largest num1;

if (num2 smallest) smallest num2;
if (num2 largest) largest num2;

if (num3 smallest) smallest num3;
if (num3 largest) largest num3;

Displaying the Results

Output the calculated sum, average, product, and the smallest/largest values using appropriate cout statements.

std::cout "Sum: " sum " ";
std::cout "Average: " average " ";
std::cout "Product: " product " ";
std::cout "Smallest: " smallest " ";
std::cout "Largest: " largest " ";

Final Summary

Explanation: This C program demonstrates how to input, process, and output data using basic operations and control structures. The program is self-contained and includes all necessary components to perform the required tasks.

How to Run the Program

Copy the code into a text editor and save it with a .cpp extension, such as calculate.cpp.

Use a C compiler like g to compile the program using the following command:

g calculate.cpp -o calculate

Run the compiled program using the following command:

./calculate

Once the program is running, you can input three integers when prompted and the program will display the results accordingly.

Conclusion: Understanding how to manipulate data in C is a crucial skill. This program provides a practical example of performing simple arithmetic operations and basic data analysis using C.