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c#median

Most efficient way to find median of three integers

Which the most effecient way to find a median of three integer number without using an array like the example below:

int[] median = {int a, int b,int c};
Array.Sort(median); 

int medianValue = median[1];
Solution

  • The fastest way I know of is to use

    max(min(a, b), min(max(a, b), c))

    I'm trusting that C# has optimisations for min and max taking two arguments. This will be quicker than taking if statements due to branching.

    There are other tricks: you can implement min and max using XOR and < but I doubt that has any benefits on modern architectures.