Distinguishing the values of three int's - c++

Question

I have three integer variables, that can take only the values 0, 1 and 2. I want to distinguish what combination of all three numbers I have, ordering doesn't count. Let's say the variables are called x, y and z. Then x=1, y=0, z=0 and x=0, y=1, z=0 and x=0, y=0, z=1 are all the same number in this case, I will refer to this combination as 001.
Now there are a hundred ways how to do this, but I am asking for an elegant solution, be it only for educational purposes.
I thought about bitwise shifting 001 by the amount of the value:
001 << 0 = 1
001 << 1 = 2
001 << 2 = 4
But then the numbers 002 and 111 would both give 6.

Answer 1

The shift idea is good, but you need 2 bits to count to 3. So try shifting by twice the number of bits:
1 << (2*0) = 1
1 << (2*1) = 4
1 << (2*2) = 16
Add these for all 3 numbers, and the first 2 bits will count how many 0 you have, the second 2 bits will count how many 1 and the third 2 bits will count how many 2.
Edit although the result is 6 bit long (2 bits per number option 0,1,2), you only need the lowest 4 bits for a unique identifier - as if you know how many 0 and 1 you have, then the number of 2 is determined also.
So instead of doing
res = 1<<(2*x);
res+= 1<<(2*y);
res+= 1<<(2*z);
you can do
res = x*x;
res+= y*y;
res+= z*z;
because then
0*0 = 0 // doesn't change result. We don't count 0
1*1 = 1 // we count the number of 1 in the 2 lower bits
2*2 = 4 // we count the number of 2 in the 2 higher bits
hence using only 4 bits instead of 6.

Answer 2

When the number of distinct possibilities is small, using a lookup table could be used.
First, number all possible combinations of three digits, like this:
Combinations N Indexes
------------- - ------
000 0 0
001, 010, 100 1 1, 3, 9
002, 020, 200 2 2, 6, 18
011, 101, 110 3 4, 10, 12
012, 021, 102, 120, 201, 210 4 5, 7, 11, 15, 19, 21
022, 202, 220 5 8, 20, 24
111 6 13
112, 121, 211 7 14, 16, 22
122, 212, 221 8 17, 23, 25
222 9 26
The first column shows identical combinations; the second column shows the number of the combination (I assigned them arbitrarily); the third column shows the indexes of each combination, computed as 9*<first digit> + 3*<second digit> + <third digit>.
Next, build a look-up table for each of these ten combinations, using this expression as an index:
9*a + 3*b + c
where a, b, and c are the three numbers that you have. The table would look like this:
int lookup[] = {
0, 1, 2, 1, 3, 4, 2, 4, 5, 1
, 3, 4, 3, 6, 7, 4, 7, 8, 2, 4
, 5, 4, 7, 8, 5, 8, 9
};
This is a rewrite of the first table, with values at the indexes corresponding to the value in the column N. For example, combination number 1 is founds at indexes 1, 3, and 9; combination 2 is at indexes 2, 6, and 18, and so on.
To obtain the number of the combination, simply check
int combNumber = lookup[9*a + 3*b + c];

Answer 3

For such small numbers, it would be easiest to just check them individually, instead of trying to be fancy, eg:
bool hasZero = false;
bool hasOne = false;
bool hasTwo = false;
// given: char* number or char[] number...
for(int i = 0; i < 3; ++i)
{
switch (number[i])
{
case '0': hasZero = true; break;
case '1': hasOne = true; break;
case '2': hasTwo = true; break;
default: /* error! */ break;
}
}

Answer 4

If I understand you correctly, you have some sequence of numbers that can either be 1, 2, or 3, where the permutation of them doesn't matter (just the different combinations).
That being the case:
std::vector<int> v{1, 2, 3};
std::sort(v.begin(), v.end());
That will keep all of the different combinations properly aligned, and you could easily write a loop to test for equality.
Alternatively, you could use a std::array<int, N> (where N is the number of possible values - in this case 3).
std::array<int, 3> a;
Where you would set a[0] equal to the number of 1s you have, a[1] equal to the number of '2's, etc.
// if your string is 111
a[0] = 3;
// if your string is 110 or 011
a[0] = 2;
// if your string is 100 or 010 or 001
a[0] = 1;
// if your string is 120
a[0] = 1;
a[1] = 1;
// if your string is 123
a[0] = 1;
a[1] = 1;
a[2] = 1;
If you are looking to store it in a single 32-bit integer:
unsigned long x = 1; // number of 1's in your string
unsigned long y = 1; // number of 2's in your string
unsigned long z = 1; // number of 3's in your string
unsigned long result = x | y << 8 | z << 16;
To retrieve the number of each, you would do
unsigned long x = result & 0x000000FF;
unsigned long y = (result >> 8) & 0x000000FF;
unsigned long z = (result >> 16) & 0x000000FF;
This is very similar to what happens in the RBG macros.

Answer 5

int n[3]={0,0,0};
++n[x];
++n[y];
++n[z];
Now, in the n array, you have a unique ordered combination of values for each unique unordered combination of x,y,z.
For example, both x=1,y=0,z=0 and x=0,y=0,z=1 will give you n={2,1,0}