Most efficient way to find smallest of 3 numbers Java?

Question

I have an algorithm written in Java that I would like to make more efficient. A part that I think could be made more efficient is finding the smallest of 3 numbers. Currentl

Answer 1

I would use min/max (and not worry otherwise) ... however, here is another "long hand" approach which may or may not be easier for some people to understand. (I would not expect it to be faster or slower than the code in the post.)

int smallest;
if (a < b) {
  if (a > c) {
    smallest = c;
  } else { // a <= c
    smallest = a;
  }
} else { // a >= b
  if (b > c) {
    smallest = c;
  } else { // b <= c
    smallest = b;
  }
}

Just throwing it into the mix.

Note that this is just the side-effecting variant of Abhishek's answer.