The challenge explanation was really clear but I just want to know why does x have to be less than or equal to y?

[The Blade Dancer]

Module 2 Week 4 Day 14 Challenge Part 3

The challenge explanation was really clear but I just want to know why does x have to be less than or equal to y?

[debbie]

@The-Darkin-Blade Good question! It's just for organizational purposes, actually. We want to sort the different ways that we are trying by setting $x$ to be the shortest side.

If we didn't have this requirement of $x \leq y,$ then we might have $3, 5,$ and $6,$ as side lengths on our list of things to check in addition to side lengths $5, 3$ and $6,$ which are really the same combination.

So, in a nutshell, this requirement ensures that we cover all the cases without doing any of the cases twice!