Determine if three doubles have the same sign

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Here's what I have so far, and it works, at least it seems to.

Is there a better way to do this?

Also not 100% sure of the 0 condition.

I'm interested in any commentary that generates an interesting, more efficient, and/or more elegant function in MQL5.

// Check if three doubles have the same sign.
bool HaveSameSign(const double a, const double b, const double c)
{
        // 0 condition - A zero doesn't have a sign.
        if ( a == 0. || b == 0. || c == 0. )
        {
                return false;
        }

        // Checks signs
        if ( a > 0. && ( b < 0. || c < 0. ) ) return false;
        if ( a < 0. && ( b > 0. || c > 0. ) ) return false;

        return true;
}
  
return (a>=0 && b>=0 && c>=0) || (a<0 && b<0 && c<0);
 
Anthony Garot:

Here's what I have so far, and it works, at least it seems to.

Is there a better way to do this?

Also not 100% sure of the 0 condition.

I'm interested in any commentary that generates an interesting, more efficient, and/or more elegant function in MQL5.

        // 0 condition - A zero doesn't have a sign.

That's not right, IEEE754 (double) has signed zero. But I don't think you have to bother about it unless you want to discriminate +0 and -0.

Which I do for fun 

//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
//| Union to work with some "double" bits                            |
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
union _64bits
  {
private:
   double            d;
   long              l;
public:
   void   _64bits(double v) : d(v)  { };
   void operator=(double v)         { d=v; };
   long sign(void) const            { return(l>>63); };
  };
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
//| True of all values in the array have same sign, otherwise false  |
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
bool HaveSameSign(double &arr[])
  {
   int size=ArraySize(arr); if(size==1) return(true);
//--- first element
   _64bits test(arr[0]);
   long sign=test.sign();

//--- if a sign is different
   for(int i=1;i<size;i++)
     {
      test=arr[i];
      if(sign!=test.sign())
         return(false);
     }
//--- all values with same sign
   return(true);
  }
const int COUNT = 3;
const int SHIFT = 32768/2;
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
//| Script program start function                                    |
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
void OnStart()
  {
   MathSrand(GetTickCount());
   double testcase[];
   ArrayResize(testcase,COUNT);

   for(int z=0;z<10;z++)
     {
      for(int i=0;i<COUNT;i++)
        {
         testcase[i]=(MathRand()-SHIFT);
        }
      ArrayPrint(testcase);
      printf("SAME SIGN : %s",HaveSameSign(testcase) ? "YES" : "NO");
     }
  }
  -0.,-0.,-0.   SAME SIGN : YES
  +0.,+0.,+0.  SAME SIGN : YES
  +0.,-0.,+0.  SAME SIGN : NO
 
Alain Verleyen:

That's not right, IEEE754 (double) has signed zero. But I don't think you have to bother about it unless you want to discriminate +0 and -0.

Which I do for fun

  -0.,-0.,-0.   SAME SIGN : YES
  +0.,+0.,+0.  SAME SIGN : YES
  +0.,-0.,+0.  SAME SIGN : NO

Impressive! You compare the sign bit directly, and you allow for any number of values to be checked.

Thanks for the IEEE754 article. Interesting, but as you say, probably nothing I need to both about. :-D

 
Simple, clean, and direct.
 

Out of curiosity, I wanted to see how MQL handles +0. and -0. values.

It appears:

1. They can be assigned simply as +0. and -0.

2. Testing with the == operator says they are the same.

And the only way to know this is using Alain's union.

#property strict

//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
//| Union to work with some "double" bits                            |
//| (Added operator== to Alain's code)                               |
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
union _64bits
  {
private:
   double            d;
   long              l;
public:
   void _64bits(double v) : d(v)    { };
   void operator=(double v)         { d=v; };
   bool operator==(_64bits &v)      { return d==v.d && l==v.l; };
   long sign(void) const            { return(l>>63); };
  };

void OnStart()
{
   // See how MQL handles +/- 0.
   double a = 0.;
   double b = -0.;
   if ( a == b ) Print("same"); else Print("not same");

   _64bits c(a);
   _64bits d(b);
   if ( c == d ) Print("same"); else Print("not same");

   PrintFormat("sign a [%d] sign b [%d]", c.sign(), d.sign() );
}
2019.08.15 08:38:11.876    negative zero (GBPJPY,H4)    same
2019.08.15 08:38:11.876    negative zero (GBPJPY,H4)    not same
2019.08.15 08:38:11.876    negative zero (GBPJPY,H4)    sign a [0] sign b [-1]
 

This is even shorter:

return !(((a>=0) + (b>=0) + (c>=0))%3);

Although it's just to show that it can be done that short in MQL. The one by @William Roeder is easier to read and maintain.

Some other solutions:

return MathAbs(a)+MathAbs(b)+MathAbs(c)==MathAbs(a+b+c);
return MathMin(MathMin(a,b),c)>=0 || MathMax(MathMax(a,b),c)<0;

Excluding zeroes as originally requested:

return a*b>0 && b*c>0;
 
Some other solutions:

These are clever. Nicely done. I like the last one best.

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