Question

This program should be in C. It should have adequate comments. Write a function called difference () that returns the difference between the largest and smallest elements of an array-of-long. Use only pointers to iterate the array. Test the function in a simple program.

Answer 1

Here is code:

int difference(int *p)
{
int max,min;
// initial adding the starting values
max = *p;
min = *p;
// loops from array strating to end of array where the end of array end with null
while(*p)
{
   // if current value is greater then max
if(max < *p)
max = *p;
// if current value is lesser then min
if(min > *p)
min = *p;
*p++; // next value
}
return max - min;
}

Sample code to test:

#include <stdio.h>

int difference(int *p)
{
int max,min;
// initial adding the starting values
max = *p;
min = *p;
// loops from array strating to end of array where the end of array end with null
while(*p)
{
   // if current value is greater then max
if(max < *p)
max = *p;
// if current value is lesser then min
if(min > *p)
min = *p;
*p++; // next value
}
return max - min;
}
int main()
{
int array[] = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9};
int diff = difference(array);
printf("The difference is %d",diff);
return 0;
}

Output:

T he diff erence 15