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Asked: 2024-09-25T13:45:56+05:30

Find the Next Multiple of 32 Without Loops or “And”: A Creative Coding Challenge

I came across this interesting challenge the other day and thought it would be fun to get some varied perspectives on it. The goal is to find the next multiple of 32 that comes after a given number, and the twist is that you can’t use any kind of loops or the “and” operator in your solution.

So, let’s say you’ve got a number, for example, 45. The next multiple of 32 would be 64. The real challenge is figuring out how to get to that answer without resorting to typical looping structures. Sounds easy, right? But that’s where the fun part begins!

Here’s how I’ve been approaching it: First, you can calculate how many multiples of 32 fit into your number. For 45, you would divide 45 by 32, which gives you a bit over 1 (specifically, 1.40625). The next step is to round that down to the nearest whole number, which would be 1. At this point, you would multiply that whole number by 32 to get the nearest multiple, which is still 32 in this case.

The tricky part is how to get to the next multiple after that without loops! If you just add 1 to your whole number and multiply again, you’ll get 64, which is precisely what you’re looking for. But here’s where creative thinking comes into play—there must be a more ingenious way to achieve this, right? How can you come up with a solution that avoids using those forbidden constructs?

I’d love to hear anyone’s thoughts or solutions. Have you ever tackled a problem like this before? If you have a different approach or an elegant one-liner that accomplishes the task, please share! Let’s see how many different solutions we can come up with. It’s a great brain teaser and could lead to some pretty interesting discussions about the methods we choose to solve problems! What do you think?

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    2 Answers


    1. Finding the Next Multiple of 32

      So, I was thinking about how to solve this challenge without using loops or the “and” operator. Here’s a simple way to do it:

      Step-by-step Approach:

      1. Start with your number (let’s say it’s n = 45).
      2. Calculate how many multiples of 32 fit into n: floor(n / 32).
      3. Now, instead of using a loop, just add 1 to that whole number to get to the next multiple.
      4. Finally, multiply that result by 32!

      Here’s how the code looks:

              
            function nextMultipleOf32(n) {
                return (Math.floor(n / 32) + 1) * 32;
            }

            console.log(nextMultipleOf32(45)); // Outputs: 64

      This function first takes your number and calculates how many times 32 fits completely into it using Math.floor. Then, it just adds 1 and multiplies by 32 again to get to the next multiple!

      It’s pretty straightforward and avoids loops entirely. What do you think? If anyone has other ideas or ways to handle this in a different style, that would be super cool to see!




    2. Find Next Multiple of 32

      To find the next multiple of 32 that comes after a given number without using loops or “and” operators, you can employ mathematical calculations. First, you divide the number by 32, and then utilize the ceiling function to get the smallest integer greater than the resultant division. For example, if your given number is 45, then you would perform the calculation: Math.ceil(45 / 32), which would give you 2. You then multiply this rounded value by 32 to get the next multiple: 2 * 32, resulting in 64, which is indeed the next multiple of 32 that follows 45.

      Additionally, a more elegant approach to avoid using loops or the “and” operator is to use the modulus operator. You can first calculate number % 32 to find out how far the number is from the last multiple of 32. If the result is not zero, you can compute number + (32 - (number % 32)) to jump directly to the next multiple of 32. This straightforward formula guarantees an efficient calculation and adheres to the challenge constraints, providing a clean one-liner solution to the problem.


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