Programming Praxis

Today’s exercise is simply stated:

Write a program that finds the maximum product of three numbers in a given array of integers.

We studied that problem in a previous exercise, where unfortunately we got it wrong. Here is the suggested solution from that exercise:

(define (max-prod-three xs)
  (let ((len (length xs)) (xs (sort < xs)))
    (cond ((< len 3) (error 'max-prod-three "insufficient input"))
          ((= len 3) (apply * xs))
          ((positive? (car xs))
            (apply * (take 3 (reverse xs))))
          ((negative? (last xs))
            (apply * (take 3 (reverse xs))))
          ((and (negative? (car xs)) (positive? (cadr xs)))
            (apply * (take 3 (reverse xs))))
          ((and (negative? (cadr xs))
                (negative? (caddr (reverse xs))))
            (* (car xs) (cadr xs) (last xs)))
          ((and (negative? (cadr xs))
                (positive? (caddr (reverse xs))))
            (max (apply * (take 3 (reverse xs)))
                 (* (car xs) (cadr xs) (last xs))))
          (else (error 'max-prod-three "missed case")))))

Your task is to write a correct program that finds the maximum product of three numbers in a given array of integers; you might start by figuring out what is wrong with the previous program. When you are finished, you are welcome to read or run a suggested solution, or to post your own solution or discuss the exercise in the comments below.

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