Certainly! Let's walk through the problem step-by-step to find the Key as described.
### Problem Breakdown
Given three four-digit numbers (input1, input2, and input3), we need to:
1. Extract individual digits of each number.
2. Identify the largest digit in each of the three numbers.
3. Identify the smallest digit in each of the three numbers.
4. Compute the sum of the largest digits.
5. Compute the sum of the smallest digits.
6. Subtract the sum of the smallest digits from the sum of the largest digits to get the Key.
### Example
Given:
- input1 = 3521
- input2 = 2452
- input3 = 1352
Steps:
1. Extract digits:
- input1: 3, 5, 2, 1
- input2: 2, 4, 5, 2
- input3: 1, 3, 5, 2
2. Largest digit in each number:
- input1: max(3, 5, 2, 1) = 5
- input2: max(2, 4, 5, 2) = 5
- input3: max(1, 3, 5, 2) = 5
3. Smallest digit in each number:
- input1: min(3, 5, 2, 1) = 1
- input2: min(2, 4, 5, 2) = 2
- input3: min(1, 3, 5, 2) = 1
4. Sum of the largest digits:
- Sum = 5 + 5 + 5 = 15
5. Sum of the smallest digits:
- Sum = 1 + 2 + 1 = 4
6. Calculate Key:
- Key = Sum of Largest digits - Sum of Smallest digits
- Key = 15 - 4 = 11
### General Approach
Let's generalize the approach for any input values within the specified range.
1. Extract digits of each number:
- Convert each number to a string, and then extract each character and convert it back to an integer to get the digits.
2. Find the largest digit in each number:
- Use the `max` function on the list of digits.
3. Find the smallest digit in each number:
- Use the `min` function on the list of digits.
4. Calculate the sum of the largest and smallest digits:
- Add up the largest digits and smallest digits separately.
5. Compute the Key:
- Subtract the sum of the smallest digits from the sum of the largest digits.
Below is the step-by-step solution using the described approach:
```markdown
Step 1:
For each input number, extract its digits.
Example:
input1 = 3521 => Digits are [3, 5, 2, 1]
Step 2:
Find the largest digit in each number.
Example:
For input1 = 3521 => Largest digit is 5
Step 3:
Find the smallest digit in each number.
Example:
For input1 = 3521 => Smallest digit is 1
Step 4:
Calculate the sum of the largest digits.
Example:
Sum of largest digits = largest_digit(input1) + largest_digit(input2) + largest_digit(input3)
Step 5:
Calculate the sum of the smallest digits.
Example:
Sum of smallest digits = smallest_digit(input1) + smallest_digit(input2) + smallest_digit(input3)
Step 6:
Calculate the Key.
Key = Sum of largest digits - Sum of smallest digits
Example Calculation:
Given:
input1 = 3521
input2 = 2452
input3 = 1352
Largest digits:
input1: 5
input2: 5
input3: 5
Sum of largest digits:
5 + 5 + 5 = 15
Smallest digits:
input1: 1
input2: 2
input3: 1
Sum of smallest digits:
1 + 2 + 1 = 4
Key:
15 - 4 = 11
```
So, the Key for the example given in the problem (input1 = 3521, input2 = 2452, input3 = 1352) is 11.
