Java™ How To Program (Early Objects), Tenth Edition

Implementing Method maximum by Reusing Method Math.max

The entire body of our maximum method could also be implemented with two calls to Math.max, as follows:

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return Math.max(x, Math.max(y, z));

The first call to Math.max specifies arguments x and Math.max(y, z). Before any method can be called, its arguments must be evaluated to determine their values. If an argument is a method call, the method call must be performed to determine its return value. So, in the preceding statement, Math.max(y, z) is evaluated to determine the maximum of y and z. Then the result is passed as the second argument to the other call to Math.max, which returns the larger of its two arguments. This is a good example of software reuse ...