Is there a method to find the max of 3 numbers in C#?

Question

The method should work like Math.Max(), but take 3 or more int parameters.

Answer 1

Well, you can just call it twice:

int max3 = Math.Max(x, Math.Max(y, z));

If you find yourself doing this a lot, you could always write your own helper method... I would be happy enough seeing this in my code base once, but not regularly.

(Note that this is likely to be more efficient than Andrew's LINQ-based answer - but obviously the more elements you have the more appealing the LINQ approach is.)

EDIT: A "best of both worlds" approach might be to have a custom set of methods either way:

public static class MoreMath
{
    // This method only exists for consistency, so you can *always* call
    // MoreMath.Max instead of alternating between MoreMath.Max and Math.Max
    // depending on your argument count.
    public static int Max(int x, int y)
    {
        return Math.Max(x, y);
    }

    public static int Max(int x, int y, int z)
    {
        // Or inline it as x < y ? (y < z ? z : y) : (x < z ? z : x);
        // Time it before micro-optimizing though!
        return Math.Max(x, Math.Max(y, z));
    }

    public static int Max(int w, int x, int y, int z)
    {
        return Math.Max(w, Math.Max(x, Math.Max(y, z)));
    }

    public static int Max(params int[] values)
    {
        return Enumerable.Max(values);
    }
}

That way you can write MoreMath.Max(1, 2, 3) or MoreMath.Max(1, 2, 3, 4) without the overhead of array creation, but still write MoreMath.Max(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) for nice readable and consistent code when you don't mind the overhead.

I personally find that more readable than the explicit array creation of the LINQ approach.