Mwahahahaha

Computer Science Level 3

(This problem was partly made by someone else.) In C++, what will the program print? Sum all the printed fractions, then add the numerator and denominator of the resulting (simplified) fraction, then square the sum.

#include <iostream>
#include <string>

using namespace std;

struct character
{
    string name;
    int hitPoints;
    int maxHitPoints;
};

void harmCharacter(character characterToHarm, int health)
{
    characterToHarm.hitPoints -= health;

    if(characterToHarm.hitPoints < 0)
    {
        characterToHarm.hitPoints = 0;
    }
}    

void healCharacter(character characterToHeal, int health)
{
    characterToHeal.hitPoints += health;

    if(characterToHeal.hitPoints > characterToHeal.maxHitPoints)
    {
        characterToHeal.hitPoints = characterToHeal.maxHitPoints;
    }
}

int main()
{
    character player = {"Col. Mustard", 10, 15};

    cout << player.hitPoints << "/" << player.maxHitPoints << endl;

    harmCharacter(player, 7);

    cout << player.hitPoints << "/" << player.maxHitPoints << endl;

    healCharacter(player, 16);

    cout << player.hitPoints << "/" << player.maxHitPoints << endl;

    harmCharacter(player, 4);

    cout << player.hitPoints << "/" << player.maxHitPoints << endl;

    healCharacter(player, 1);

    cout << player.hitPoints << "/" << player.maxHitPoints << endl;

    cout << "Col. Mustard SUCKS!!! Professor Plum and Miss Scarlet are SO MUCH BETTER!!!!!" << endl;

    cout << endl;
    cout << endl;

    return 0;
}

The answer is 169.

1 solution

Ivan Koswara
Jul 20, 2015

Note that in the definition of harmCharacter , the first argument has type character instead of character* (a pointer to a character ). Thus the whole struct is copied, and only the copy is modified; the original is left untouched. Likewise with healCharacter . Thus in all cases, player is never modified, and thus there will be five lines of 10/15 . The sum of them is $\frac{10}{3}$ .

This is most certainly a bug, as harmCharacter and healCharacter would do nothing this way. The fix is to change the arguments into of type character* instead, so that we have a pointer to the original player and thus we can modify it in the functions.

Moderator note:

Good eye, Ivan!

Nice solution! However, an easier way is just to put &characterToHarm instead of characterToHarm, and do the same for characterToHeal.

Kevin Li - 5 years, 10 months ago

One of the reasons (why I didn't do that) is that I'm not that proficient in C++, so I forgot a few such tricks.

Ivan Koswara - 5 years, 10 months ago

Mwahahahaha

The answer is 169.

1 solution

Moderator note:

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