Comparing two integers without any comparison

Question

Is it possible to find the greatest of two integers without any comparison? I found some solutions:

if(!(a/b)) // if a is less than b then division result          


        

Answer 1

Here's a fun bit-twiddling version that doesn't have any conditional branches.

int g = (int)"greater";
int l = (int)"less";
int e = (int)"equal";

int a = 7;
int b = 10;

char *result = (char*)((((a - b) >> 31) & l) | (((b - a) >> 31) & g) | ((~((a - b) | (b - a))) >> 31) & e);
cout << result;