bubble sort broken - c++

I'm trying to code a bubble sort. I'm unable to find the error, I think it has to do with swapping. Can someone tell me where the bug is? It's throwing some unwanted elements at the end of the array.
#include <iostream>
#include <windows.h>
using namespace std;
void swap(int* a,int* b) {
int *c;
c = a;
a = b;
b = c;
return;
}
int main()
{
int array[4], a = 0;
cout << "Enter 5 numbers to be bubble sorted" << endl;
for (a = 0; a <= 4; a++)
{
std::cin >>array[a];
Sleep(1000);
}
for (int b = 0; b <= 4; b++)
{
for(int f = 4;f >= b; f--)
{
if (array[f] < array[f-1])
{
swap(array[f],array[f-1]);
}
}
}
for(int d = 0; d <= 4; d++)
{
cout << '\n';
cout << array[d] << '\n';
}
return (0);
}

You are getting confused over array sizes. It's actually really simple, you want an array of size 5, so just use 5 in your code everywhere
int array[5]; not int array[4];
for (a=0; a<5; a++) not for (a=0; a<=4; a++)
The second one isn't wrong, it's just easier to understand if you always use 5 instead of a mix of 4 and 5.
Your swap function doesn't work and is not being called correctly. Your version swaps pointers not what is being pointed at. One of the more common things that newbies get wrong about pointers is getting confused about the pointer and what the pointer is pointing at. Here's how it should look:
void swap(int* a,int* b) {
int c;
c=*a;
*a=*b;
*b=c;
}
Finally you are calling the swap function wrongly. Your swap function uses pointers so you have to call it with pointers:
swap(array[f],array[f-1]);
should be
swap(&array[f],&array[f-1]);

The maximum index in your for loop is 5, but the size of the array is only 4. Accessing array[4] is likely to modify other local variables, such as a, b, and f.
Your swap is never invoked in your code. array[i] returns int& and your invocation of swap actually calls std::swap.
using namespace std is not a good habit, in my opinion.

If you say that "Its throwing some unwanted elements at the end of the array", I guess that the problem is in indexing. The inner loop iterates from the end of array down to b (inclusive), but you compare the element with the previous one. While the first iteration of the outer loop (b = 0) the inner loop will iterate over 4, 3, 2, 1, 0. In the last moment it would compare array[0] vs array[-1]. Even if the exception is not thrown, god knows what does this memory location contain (and I guess that the value is greater than the minimum element you use as the input). At the end of the day your smallest element goes to the location array[-1] (very dangerous...), and the garbage goes to the (possibly) last element of your array.
Another issue is that the last "element" of your array (array[4]) is actually the memory location where the variable a (most probably) is stored. When you read the last element from the stream (a = 4), you override this variable with the input value. What happens next? a++. The "last element" is being incremented. If by accident it is larger than 4, you exit the loop.
There are many other issues with your code, but these are the most probable reasons of observed behavior.

Change array[4] to array[5] and change the condition of inner loop from
for(int f=4;f>=b;f--) to for(int f=4;f>=(b+1);f--)
#include<iostream>
#include<windows.h>
using namespace std;
void swap(int* a,int* b) {
int *c;
c=a;
a=b;
b=c;
return;
}
int main(){
int array[5],a=0;
cout<< "Enter 5 numbers to be bubble sorted"<<endl;
for (a=0; a<=4; a++)
{
std::cin >>array[a];
Sleep(1000);
}
for (int b=0;b<=4;b++)
{
for(int f=4;f>=(b+1);f--){
if (array[f]<array[f-1])
{
swap(array[f],array[f-1]);
}
}
}
for( int d=0; d<=4;d++){
cout << '\n';
cout << array[d]<< '\n';
}
return (0);
}

Related

return a dynamically allocated array of the same length but with the elements in the reverse order

Write a function, reverseArray, that when passed an int array of length greater than 0 will return a dynamically allocated array of the same length but with the elements in the reverse order. For example, if passed the array, {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0} the function would return the array {0,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1}.
Below is my code, but there is a bug in it.
This is my output.
1
2
3
4
5
6
4113
6
5
4
3
2
1
0x7fffe697ceb0
The 4113 and address are provided by the compiler.
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int * readNumbers() {
int * a = new int[6];
for (int i = 0; i < 6; i++) {
int x;
cin >> x;
a[i] = x;
}
// a++;
return a;
delete[] a;
}
int *reverseArray(int *numbers1,int length) {
for (int i = length; i >=0; i--) {
cout << numbers1[i] << endl;
}
return numbers1;
delete [] numbers1;
}
int main() {
int *arr1 = readNumbers();
cout << reverseArray(arr1,6) << endl;
return 0;
}
I think there may have been an issue with your wording. Assuming you want your function just to print the reverse of a passed array, you're off to a good start.
One issue is what was said in the comments: your for loop is indexing past your array. When you type int * a = new int[6]; you are creating a pointer 'a' which points to a location in memory. Since you chose size 6, the appropriate amount of memory is allocated. If you happen to index outside of that range, you will end up pointing to a random spot in memory, not allocated for your array. Hence why you are getting a weird number '4113'.
A fix for this could be:
int i = length changed to int i = length-1
Another issue is that your function returns an integer pointer, and you are trying to cout this pointer. As another commenter said, you have to think about what this does. If you try this code:
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main() {
int arr[] = {1, 2, 3};
cout << arr << endl;
return 0;
}
your output would be something like 0xff09ba. This represents the location of the start of the array in memory. If you change arr to (arr + 1) you will get the location of the second index of the array.
So when you type cout << reverseArray(arr1,6) << endl; you are really just printing out the location of numbers1 in memory. This is why you are getting '0x7fffe697ceb0' in your output. To fix this, simply make your function
void reverseArray(int *numbers1,int length) {
for (int i = length; i >=0; i--) {
cout << numbers1[i] << endl;
}
}
and change your main to:
int main() {
int *arr1 = readNumbers();
reverseArray(arr1,6);
return 0;
}
Now, if you actually want to return this array, you would need to create a new array which holds the reverse numbers and then return that. An example of a function that does that is:
int* reverseArray(int *numbers1,int length) {
int j = 0;
int *numbers2 = new int[length];
for (int i = length-1; i >=0; i--) {
numbers2[j] = numbers1[i];
j++;
}
return numbers2;
}
There are probably better ways to do this, but this is just one solution. Regardless, you should always be careful when allocating memory yourself.

Calculates the position of the max element for array. function returns the max element. pass the array by the pointer and the pos. by the reference

i have a little problem with my college assignment. I don't really understand what's going on with pointers and reference. Could someone point me where I am making a mistake??
using namespace std;
int i, n, maax, *position;
void tablica()
{
int tab[n];
cout<<"enter data:"<<endl;
for (i=0; i<n; i++)
{
cin>>tab[i];
}
maax = tab[0];
for (i=0; i<n; i++)
{
if (maax<tab[i])
{
maax=tab[i];
*position=i+1;
}
}
}
int main()
{
cout<<"array size:"<<endl;
cin>>n;
tablica();
cout<<"max el. position is: "<<&position<<endl;
return 0;
}
Sure we can help you a little bit. But the whole topic of pointers and references cannot be covered in a short answer here on SO. You need to read a book.
The following will be very simplified and there is much more in reality. But let's start with this simple explanantion.
Let me give you a typical example that is often used in C or very early C++ books. Look at the function swap that should exchange the values of 2 variables.
#include <iostream>
void swap(int a, int b) {
int temp = a;
a = b;
b = temp;
}
int main() {
int a = 1, b = 2;
swap(a, b);
std::cout << "a: " << a << "\tb: " << b << '\n';
}
We hope that after the call to the function swap, "a" will contain 2 and "b" will be 1. But it is not. Because in this case (and per default) the variables that are given to the function swap, are passed by value. So, the compiler will generate some code and copies the value of variables "a" and "b" into some local internal storage, also accessible with the name "a" and "b". So, the original "a" and "b" will never be touched or modified. By passing a variable by value, a copy will be mdae. This is often intended, but will not work in this example.
The next development stage was the pointer. The pointer is also a variable that contains a value. But this time it is the address of another variable somehwere in memory. If you have a variable like int a=3; then the 3 is somewhere stored in memory (decided by the compiler of the linker) and you can access the memory region with the name "a".
A pointer can store the memory address of this variable. So not the value 3 of the variable "a", but the address of the variable "a" in memory. The pointer points to that memory region, where the 3 ist stored. If you want to access this value, then you need to dereference the pointer with the * operator. And to get the address of variable 'a', you can write &a. But how does this help?
It helps you indirectly to get modified or result values out of a function. Example:
#include <iostream>
void swap(int *a, int *b) {
int temp = *a;
*a = *b;
*b = temp;
}
int main() {
int a = 1, b = 2;
swap(&a, &b);
std::cout << "a: " << a << "\tb: " << b << '\n';
}
In main we take the address of variable "a" and "b" and give this to the function. The address of the function (the pointer) will be given to the function as value now. A copy of the pointer will be made (not in reality) but this does not harm, because we can now modify the original values of the variable, by derefencing the pointer. Then the function ends and we will find the correct values in the original variables "a" and "b".
But, pointers are notoriously difficult to understand and very error prone. Therefore the "reference" has been invented. It is kind of an alias for a normal variable. And the good point is that if you pass a reference to the function, then you can modify immediately the original value. That makes things very convenient.
The function swap could then be written as
#include <iostream>
void swap(int &a, int &b) {
int temp = a;
a = b;
b = temp;
}
int main() {
int a = 1, b = 2;
swap(a, b);
std::cout << "a: " << a << "\tb: " << b << '\n';
}
And this gives the intented result. And is by far simpler.
Now to your code. First, VLAs (variable length arrays), namely the int tab[n]; where 'n' is no compile time constant, are a not a ppart of the C++ language. You canot use them. You could and should use a std::vector instead, but you did not yet learn about it. So we will use new, to allocate some memory dynamically. Please note: In reality, new, raw pointers for owned memory and C-Style arrays should not be used. But anyway.
Then let us look at your requirements
function returns the max element. pass the array by the pointer and the pos. by the reference
So, we need a function to calculate the max element in an array, then return this value, and additionally copy the position of the max element in a variable, given to the function as reference. We will add an additional parameter for the size of the array, because we will not use VLAs here. The array will be given by pointer.
So the prototype of your function will be:
int getMaxElement(int *array, int sizeOfArray, int& positionOfMaxValue)
To implement such a function, we create an internal variable to hold the max value, which we will later return. Then, we compare all values in a loop against this max value and, if we find a bigger one, then we store this new result. As the initial value, we can simply take the first value of the array.
Example:
#include <iostream>
int getMaxElement(int* array, int sizeOfArray, int& positionOfMaxValue) {
int resultingMaxValue = 0;
if (sizeOfArray > 0) {
resultingMaxValue = array[0];
for (int i = 0; i < sizeOfArray; ++i) {
if (array[i] > resultingMaxValue) {
resultingMaxValue = array[i];
positionOfMaxValue = i;
}
}
}
return resultingMaxValue;
}
int main() {
// Get array size from user
std::cout << "\nPlease enter the array size: ";
int arraySize = 0;
std::cin >> arraySize;
// Create an array
int* array = new int[arraySize];
// Read all values into the array
for (int i = 0; i < arraySize; ++i)
std::cin >> array[i];
// Now calculate the max value and position of the max value
int position = 0;
int maxValue = getMaxElement(array, arraySize, position);
// Show result
std::cout << "\n\nResult:\nThe maximum value '" << maxValue << "' is at position " << position << '\n';
delete[] array;
}
Please remember: This is a very simplified explanation
You shouldn't use global variables (see Are global variables bad?). int tab[n]; is not standard C++, its a variable length array that is only available as extension on some compilers (see Why aren't variable-length arrays part of the C++ standard?). The segfault is because you never allocate memory for the position, it is initialized because its a global, but it doesnt point to an int (see Is dereferencing a pointer that's equal to nullptr undefined behavior by the standard?).
You do not need any array to get the max value and position. And there is no need to use a pointer in your code. Determine the maximum value and position in the same loop that is reading the input and return the result from the function instead of using the global variable:
#include <iostream>
int tablica(int n) {
std::cout<<"enter data:\n";
int max = 0;
int max_pos = 0;
std::cin >> max;
for (int i=1; i<n; i++) {
int number = 0;
std::cin>>number;
if (max<number) {
max=number;
max_pos = i;
}
}
return max_pos;
}
int main()
{
std::cout<<"input size:\n";
int n;
std::cin>>n;
int position = tablica(n);
std::cout<<"max el. position is: "<< position << "\n";
return 0;
}
Look at what the function should do:
"function returns the max element. pass the array by the pointer and the pos. by the reference"
It should not read any array elements.
It should not receive or return values in global variables.
It should not use a pointer to the position.
It should be passed an array (as a pointer) and somewhere to store the maximum position (as a reference), and return the maximum value.
That is, its prototype should look like
int tablica(const int* input, int size, int& max_position)
and main should look something like this:
int main()
{
int n = 0;
cout << "Array size: " << endl;
cin >> n;
int* data = new int[n];
for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)
{
cin >> data[i];
}
int position = -1;
int max_element = tablica(data, n, position);
cout << "The maximum element is " << max_element << ", at index " << position << endl;
delete [] data;
}
Implementing tablica left as an exercise.

How do I find highest value using pointer?

I want to find the highest value from an array using two given pointer int *p,*max;, but the code doesn't work.
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
int main() {
int a[10], i, index;
int *p, *max;
for (i = 0; i < 10; i++) cin >> a[i];
max = 0;
p = &a[10];
for (index = 0; index < 10; index++) {
if ((p[index]) > *max) {
*max = (p[index]);
}
}
cout << "Highest value=" << *max << endl << "is at index=" << index << endl;
return 0;
}
The code is buggy. First of all, you assign
p=&a[10];
This assigns p to a memory address past a. Furthermore, you then index as p[index], which essentially is the same as a[10 + index].
Also, max is a wild pointer. It does not point to anything. You are assigning values to an undefined memory location.
I would strongly suggest to read up on pointers and to properly understand them before using them. Also, in modern C++, it is not very often than you need pointers.
Also, in idiomatic C++, we would probably write
auto p = std::max_element(a, a + 10);
There are several problems.
First, p should point to the array's first element, so you should have p = &a[0].
You can also rely on implicit conversion and just write p = a;, which is exactly the same.
&a[10] is the pointer "one-past-the-end" of the array, and dereferencing it is undefined.
Next, you want max to point to the maximum element.
It should also start at the beginning of the array, like p.
Then, when you find a new maximum, you should make max point to that element, not change the value max points to.
Lastly, index will always be 10 after the search loop.
(Take a few moments to think about why.)
You don't need it – the index is the difference between the location of the maximum element and the beginning of the array.
int main()
{
int a[10];
for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
cin >> a[i];
int* max = &a[0];
int* p = &a[0];
for (int index = 0; index < 10; index++){
if (p[index] > *max){
max = &p[index];
}
}
cout << "Highest value= " << *max << endl << "is at index= "<< max - a << endl;
}
I'd remove p and use a range-based for-loop where possible and iterators when it'll improve performance.
Comments in the code:
#include <iostream>
#include <iterator>
// using namespace std; // don't do this
int main() {
using std::cin, std::cout;
int a[10];
// use a range-based for-loop:
for(int& aref : a) { // aref is a reference to the current element in a
// check that extraction from std::cin actually works
if(!(cin >> aref)) {
std::cerr << "error reading int\n";
return 1;
}
}
// initialize max to point at the first element
auto max = std::begin(a);
// Start at the second element since max is already set to point at the first element.
// Don't use magic numbers. Define a constant or use std::size(<array>)
// ...or use iterators like in this example:
for(auto curr = std::next(std::begin(a)); curr != std::end(a); ++curr) {
if(*curr > *max) {
max = curr;
}
}
// you can use std::distance ot calculate the index for max:
cout << "Highest value=" << *max << '\n'
<< "is at index=" << std::distance(std::begin(a), max) << '\n';
}
The solution to this problem is recognizing that max should always point to the maximum item seen in the array a so far so instead of initializing max to 0 you start by initializing it to point to the first item in a which is &a[0] or just a.
I tried to make the least amount of changes to the original code:
#include <iostream>
#include<string>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
int a[10],i,index;
int *p,*max;
for(i=0;i<10;i++)
cin>>a[i];
max=a; // Initialize max to point to the first item in a
p=a;
for(index=0;index<10;index++){
if((p[index])>*max){
max=(&p[index]); // Now make max point to the new maximum item
}
}
cout<<"Highest value="<<*max<<endl<<"is at index="<<max - p<<endl;
return 0;
}
Here is the code in ideone:
https://ideone.com/BwE45C
As mentioned in the comments below p probably is not being used as the question expects so I have rewritten the code to iterate using p
#include <iostream>
#include<string>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
int a[10],i,index;
int *max;
for(i=0;i<10;i++)
cin>>a[i];
max=a;
for(int* p=a;p<a+10;p++){ // p is now a pointer that is used to iterate through the array
if(*p>*max){
max=p; // max points to the new maximum
}
}
cout<<"Highest value="<<*max<<endl<<"is at index="<<max - a<<endl;
return 0;
}
The new ideone link for this is here: https://ideone.com/bk3zoS

The three biggest numbers in array

#include<iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
int s;
cin>>s;
int t=3;
int maxValue,imax[t],maxIndex,arr[s];
for(int i=0; i<s; i++){
cin>>arr[i];
}
maxValue=arr[0];
for(int i=0;i<s;i++){
if(arr[i]>maxValue){
maxValue=arr[i];
imax[0] = i;
}
}
maxValue=arr[0];
for(int i=0;i<s;i++){
if (i == imax[0]) { continue; }
if(arr[i]>maxValue){
maxValue=arr[i];
imax[1] = i;
}
}
maxValue=arr[0];
for(int i=0;i<s;i++){
if (i == imax[0]) { continue; }
if (i == imax[1]) { continue; }
if(arr[i]>maxValue){
maxValue=arr[i];
imax[2] = i;
}
}
cout<<"First biggest number:"<<arr[imax[0]]<<"\n";
cout<<"Second biggest number:"<<arr[imax[1]]<<"\n";
cout<<"Third biggest number:"<<arr[imax[2]];
return 0;
}
This program must return tree numbers which is biggest in this arraybut , i do not know why when I introduce as example five numbers (121,34,56,67,545) and the compiler was return 545 and then crash.
Thank you in advance for the answer.
The problem is that before iterating the loop, you first set the maxValue to be the first element in the array. The imax only gets updated whenever there is at least one element greater than the current maxValue. However, if the first element is somehow the maxValue you are looking for, then the imax never gets set, which would be uninitialized causing segmentation fault at the end.
In your code, after finding the largest element 545, the second largest element was never found, since 121 is the first element in the array. Hence after printing out 545, imax[1] is uninitialized and the program crashes.
You use uninitialized array values in lines
cout<<"First biggest number:"<<arr[imax[0]]<<"\n";
cout<<"Second biggest number:"<<arr[imax[1]]<<"\n";
cout<<"Third biggest number:"<<arr[imax[2]];
If there are less than 3 different numbers in input, some imax array elements will not be initialized. Also if input array is empty, imax will not be initialized at all.
Therefore in expression arr[imax[1]] you read element of arr with index, which was not initialized and can be some very big number. It can be fixed if you declare iarr as
int imax[t] = {};
This will zero-initialize all elements of array and will prevent crashing.
Your program also doesn't check number of elements in input array, so if there are less than three input numbers arr[2] will also print uninitialized value.
Here's proper solution using STL algorithms and std::vector. It works with any number of t - you can easily change it to print largest 10 numbers. It is also memory efficient - it does not need to store whole input array so you can process large inputs with it.
#include <algorithm>
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
int main() {
int s;
std::cin >> s;
unsigned t = 3;
std::vector<int> max_numbers;
max_numbers.reserve(t + 1);
for (int i = 0; i < s; ++i) {
int number;
if (std::cin >> number) { //Check basic input errors
max_numbers.push_back(number); // Add number to top-3 list
// Sort elements in descending order
std::sort(max_numbers.begin(), max_numbers.end(), std::greater<int>());
// Remove duplicates
max_numbers.erase(std::unique(max_numbers.begin(), max_numbers.end()),
max_numbers.end());
// Remove excess elements
if (max_numbers.size() > t) {
max_numbers.resize(t);
}
}
}
std::cout << "Biggest " << t << " numbers are" << std::endl;
for (int i : max_numbers) {
std::cout << i << std::endl;
}
}

Variables being affected by 'bad' instructions

Below is my code, for solving problem 7 of PE ("find the 10001th prime"):
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
bool isPrime(int n, int primes[], int l){
int i=0;
for (int i=0; i < l; i++){
if (primes[i] != 0 && n%primes[i] == 0){
return false;
}
}
return true;
}
int main()
{
int k=3;
int primes[10001] = {0};
primes[0]=2;
const int l=sizeof(primes)/sizeof(primes[0]);
int N=0;
while (N < l){
if(isPrime(k, primes, l)==true){
primes[++N]=k;
}
k+=2;
}
cout << primes[l-1] << endl;
return 0;
}
This code solves the problem, but there is a mistake in it: on the final iteration of the while loop, the instruction is to set primes[10001]=k;, which attempts to change a value of an element of an array that doesn't exist. If I don't declare it to be constant, and (as a means of troubleshooting) replace l by 10001 in the while loop, the value of l becomes equal to the 10002th prime at the end of the loop.
Here is the main function part of this happening:
int main()
{
int k=3;
int primes[10001] = {0};
primes[0]=2;
int l=sizeof(primes)/sizeof(primes[0]);
int N=0;
while (N < l){
if(isPrime(k, primes, 10001)==true){
primes[++N]=k;
}
k+=2;
}
cout << l << endl;
return 0;
}
My question is, why does this happen? I do know that a simple fix is to stop the loop at l-1 (or better, initialize with N=1 instead and increment N after), but I'm more interested in how this code can affect a variable that isn't being explicitly (directly?) involved in the bad part of the code.
Thank you!
The [] Operator does no bounds checking. some_array[102], will simple go 102 * sizeof(type) if thats outside your array, thats outside your array. C++ won't care.
These are some of the nastiest bugs that can generated if you are lucky you program will crash, sometimes you can just end up changing somebody else's variable.
Which is why I harp on at work about using std::array and std::vector alot because they come with .at(i) functions which have bounds checking.