Problem Definition

Create a Python program to find the smallest among the three given numbers, taking runtime inputs from the user.

In this article, we will show you two methods to address this same problem one being the conventional way and the other being the Pythonic way.

Program To Find The Smallest Number Using Conditional Statements

1. Take inputs from the user and store them in variables
2. Compare the numbers
3. Print the final result
4. End

To understand the program you need to have an understanding of following Python concept.

• How To Write Conditional Statements In Python

num1 = float(input("Enter first number: "))
num2 = float(input("Enter second number: "))
num3 = float(input("Enter third number: "))

smallest = num1
if (num2 < num1) and (num2 < num3):
    smallest = num2
elif (num3 < num1):
    smallest = num3

print("The smallest number is", smallest)

Runtime Test Cases

Enter first number: 90
Enter second number: 34
Enter third number: 69
The smallest number is 34.0

Explanation

First, the program is taking input from the keyboard using the built-in input() function. Although we do need to change the datatype of the inputs to either integer or float, we are converting the input to float for more accuracy.

Next, there are 3 conditional statements which will store the smallest number into the variable smallest which later gets printed out.

Program To Find The Smallest Number Using List Method

num1 = float(input("Enter first number: "))
num2 = float(input("Enter second number: "))
num3 = float(input("Enter third number: "))

my_list = [num1, num2, num3]
smallest = min(my_list)
print("The smallest number is", smallest)

Runtime Test Cases

Enter first number: 90
Enter second number: 34
Enter third number: 69
The smallest number is 34.0

In this approach, we are making a list of all the inputs and using the min() method which returns the item with the lowest value in the list.