signed or unsigned int problem

[bpedigo]

I am working on code in class. The idea is that you enter three numbers into the program and it tells you which number is the highest. I have gotten my code to work for all but one case in which the user gives three negative numbers. I tried to make the variables signed integers. But still didn't work right any ideas on how to make this code work for negative numbers? It works otherwise.

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int ask(string prompt);


int main()
{
    int highest_num = ask("Enter three numbers separated by a space\n");
    cout<<highest_num<<" is the highest.\n";
    return 0;
}


int ask(string prompt)
{
    int a, b, c;
    cout<<prompt;
    cin>>a>>b>>c;
    if(a>b && a>c)
    {
        return a;
    }
    else if(b>a && b>c)
    {
        return b;
    }
    else if(c>a && c>b)
    {
        return c;
    }
}

[DivineLight]

When I test this code as is, it works fine with any combination of negative/positive numbers.

for example: I input (-1, -5, -17), the output is: -1, which, needless to say, is indeed higher than both -5 and -17.

[ShodanHo]

It looks correct.
Maybe you have data entry problems.

(1) Add some debug prints such as:

cout << "a=" << a << endl;
cout << "b=" << b << endl;
cout << "c=" << c << endl;

after line 20.

And:
cout << "a is biggest" << endl;
etc before each return statement.

(2) The else if (...) statement in line 29 can be replaced with an else as that test should always pass.

[bpedigo]

thanks for looking at this code with me guys! It works for me too! Except when the user enters -52.21 -54.23 -54.1 then it seems to break. I am thinking maybe I should try a making the variable a float type?

[DivineLight]

Yes, if you want the code to work with decimal values, you'll need to use either float or double in place of int.

[Yanson]

also you might want to make use of the algorithm max function
http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/algorithm/max/