How can I perform multiplication without the '*' operator?

Question

I was just going through some basic stuff as I am learning C. I came upon a question to multiply a number by 7 without using the * operator. Basically it\'s like this

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Answer 1

public static int multiply(int a, int b) 
{
    int temp = 0;
    if (b == 0) return 0;
    for (int ii = 0; ii < abs(b); ++ii) {
        temp = temp + a;
    }

    return b >= 0 ? temp : -temp;
}

public static int abs(int val) {

    return val>=0 ? val : -val;
}