Divide a number by 3 without using any arithmetic operators

How to divide a number by 3 without using operators + - / * %

NOTE: I am just trying to collect various answers down in this post available across multiple sites in internet as mentioned in references.

Solution 01:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main()
{
    FILE *fp=fopen("temp.dat","w+b");
    int number=12346;
    int divisor=3;
    char *buf = calloc(number,1);
    fwrite(buf,number,1,fp);
    rewind(fp);
    int result=fread(buf,divisor,number,fp);
    printf("%d / %d = %d", number, divisor, result);
    free(buf);
    fclose(fp);
    return 0;
}

Checking Balance of Symbols in a expression

This article is part of article series - "Datastructures"

A balanced expression contains right number of closing and open braces.

For example:

• [[ - unbalanced expression
• []{}() - balanced expression
• [(*)] - balanced expression

Let us see how to find if an expression is balanced or not by checking for following operators [ ] { } and ( ) in the given expression.

Using Stacks

Conversion from Infix to Postfix

This article is part of article series - "Datastructures"

Converting a Fully Parenthesized Infix expression into Postfix expression  

Analysis:

Five types of input characters

• Opening parentheses
• Operands
• Operators
• Closing parentheses
• New line character (\n)

Pseudocode:

********************************************************  
 Function  : main  
  
 Calls     : createStack  
             freeStack                
             pushIntoStack   
             popFromStack   
  
 Called by : NONE   
  
 Input   
 Parameters: Accepts input expression for processing  
    
 Returns   : Converts Fully paranthesized INFIX 
             expression into POSTFIX expression
******************************************************** 

SET i to 0
GET infix expression from user into input_array
SET var with input_array[i]

CALL createStack

WHILE var != end of string

  IF var equals to '(' THEN
  
    CALL pushIntoStack (stack, var)  

  ELSE IF var is a number THEN        
  
    PRINT var  

  ELSE IF var is an arithmetic operator THEN
  
    CALL pushIntoStack (stack, var) 
    
  ELSE IF var equals to ')' THEN

    WHILE stackTop != '('

      IF stackTop is an arithmetic operator THEN

        PRINT stackTop
        popFromStack (stack)

      ENDIF
    
    ENDWHILE

    popFromStack (stack)

  ENDIF

  SET var with input_expression[INCREMENT i]

ENDWHILE

CALL freeStack (stack)

Detecting First Node in a Loop in the List

This article is part of article series - "Datastructures"

Previous Article: Detecting a Loop in Singly Linked List - Tortoise and Hare.
Next Article: Finding Nth node from end of a Singly Linked List.

Once we confirm that there is a Loop in a Singly Linked List we will see how to determine first node of the loop.

Finding Nth node from end of a Singly Linked List

This article is part of article series - "Datastructures"

Previous Article: Finding first node in a Loop in Singly Linked List.

Figure 1: Singly Linked List

Solution 01 - Brute Force Approach:

1. Start at First Node of the List (call it curNodePtr).
2. Assign curNodePtr to tmpPtr and count number of nodes after the curNodePtr.
3. If number of nodes after curNodePtr are equal to N nodes or tmpPtr reaches END then break. If tmPtr reaches END but count not equal to N then return since we can't find the Nth node from the end of the Singly Linked List.
4. Move the curNodePtr one step forward in the Linked List i.e curNodePtr now points to its next node in the list and start again from STEP-2.

Reversing a Singly Linked List

This article is part of article series - "Datastructures"

Previous Article: Deleting a Node from a Singly Linked List.
Next Article: Detecting a Loop in Singly Linked List - Tortoise and Hare.

Let us see how to reverse a Singly Linked List.

Figure-1: Singly Linked List

Pseudocode:

cur_ptr = HEAD->NEXT
prev_ptr = NULL

forever:

   if cur_ptr == NULL
   break

   tmp_ptr  = prev_ptr
   prev_ptr = cur_ptr
   cur_ptr  = cur_ptr->NEXT
   
   prev_ptr->NEXT = tmp_ptr

HEAD->NEXT = prev_ptr

Complexity:
Time Complexity: O(n)
Space Complexity: O(3)

If we try on the example in Figure-1 we get the output as shown below

Figure-2: After reversing the Singly Linked List

Previous Article: Deleting a Node from a Singly Linked List.
Next Article: Detecting a Loop in Singly Linked List - Tortoise and Hare.

Detecting a Loop in Singly Linked List - Tortoise & Hare

This article is part of article series - "Datastructures"

Previous Article: Reversing a Singly Linked List.
Next Article: Finding first node in a Loop in Singly Linked List.

Eventhough there are multiple algorithms available we start with

Floyd's Cycle-Finding Algorithm
In simple terms it is also known as "Tortoise and Hare Algorithm" or "Floyd's Cycle Detection Algorithm" named after its inventor Robert Floyd. It is one of the simple cycle detection algorithm. It's a simple pointers based approach.

Robert Floyd

Write a C Program without main function

In a C program main function is the entry point so it is mandatory to have a main function.

But let us see how can we write a program without main (Kind of hiding main in some obfuscated code). This post is purely out of interest to know that we can do something weird like this, just for learning.

Implementing ls command in C

We know that ls command in unix displays the list of files in a directory. It has various options to display the data in various styles and formats.

By default its implementation is part of Coreutils package, which is default package in all Linux flavours.

I want to see how we can implement its basic functionality with a simple C program.