CTCI 17.4

Write a method which finds the maximum of two numbers. You should not use if-else or any other comparision operator.

CTCI 17.4.java

public static int findMax(int a, int b){
    int sign_a = sign(a);
    int sign_b = sign(b);
    int sigh_a_minus_b = sign(a - b);
    
    int different = sign_a ^ sign_b;
    int result = 0;
    result = (sign_a * a + sign_b * b) * different + 
            (sigh_a_minus_b * a + flip(sigh_a_minus_b) * b) * (1 - different);
    return result;
}

public static int sign(int input){
    return (input >> 31) & 0x1;
}

public static flip(int input){
    return input ^ 1;
}