boolean-logic

Logic to test that 3 of 4 are True


I want to return True if and only if 3 out of 4 boolean values are true.

The closest I've gotten is (x ^ y) ^ (a ^ b):

What should I do?


Solution

  • I suggest writing the code in a manner that indicates what you mean. If you want 3 values to be true, it seems natural to me that the value 3 appears somewhere.

    For instance, in C++:

    if ((int)a + (int)b + (int)c + (int)d == 3)
        ...
    

    This is well defined in C++: the standard (§4.7/4) indicates that converting bool to int gives the expected values 0 or 1.

    In Java and C#, you can use the following construct:

    if ((a?1:0) + (b?1:0) + (c?1:0) + (d?1:0) == 3)
        ...