Okay, so I'm working on Euler Problem 12 (find the first triangular number with a number of factors over 500) and my code (in Python 3) is as follows:
factors = 0
y=1
def factornum(n):
x = 1
f = []
while x <= n:
if n%x == 0:
f.append(x)
x+=1
return len(f)
def triangle(n):
t = sum(list(range(1,n)))
return t
while factors<=500:
factors = factornum(triangle(y))
y+=1
print(y-1)
Basically, a function goes through all the numbers below the input number n, checks if they divide into n evenly, and if so add them to a list, then return the length in that list. Another generates a triangular number by summing all the numbers in a list from 1 to the input number and returning the sum. Then a while loop continues to generate a triangular number using an iterating variable y as the input for the triangle function, and then runs the factornum function on that and puts the result in the factors variable. The loop continues to run and the y variable continues to increment until the number of factors is over 500. The result is then printed.
However, when I run it, nothing happens - no errors, no output, it just keeps running and running. Now, I know my code isn't the most efficient, but I left it running for quite a bit and it still didn't produce a result, so it seems more likely to me that there's an error somewhere. I've been over it and over it and cannot seem to find an error.
I'd merely request that a full solution or a drastically improved one isn't given outright but pointers towards my error(s) or spots for improvement, as the reason I'm doing the Euler problems is to improve my coding. Thanks!
You have very inefficient algorithm.
If you ask for pointers rather than full solution, main pointers are:
There is a more efficient way to calculate next triangular number. There is an explicit formula in the wiki. Also if you generate sequence of all numbers it is just more efficient to add next n to the previous number. (Sidenote list in sum(list(range(1,n))) makes no sense to me at all. If you want to use this approach anyway, sum(xrange(1,n) will probably be much more efficient as it doesn't require materialization of the range)
There are much more efficient ways to factorize numbers
There is a more efficient way to calculate number of factors. And it is actually called after Euler: see Euler's totient function
Generally Euler project problems (as in many other programming competitions) are not supposed to be solvable by sheer brute force. You should come up with some formula and/or more efficient algorithm first.
As far as I can tell your code will work, but it will take a very long time to calculate the number of factors. For 150 factors, it takes on the order of 20 seconds to run, and that time will grow dramatically as you look for higher and higher number of factors.
One way to reduce the processing time is to reduce the number of calculations that you're performing. If you analyze your code, you're calculating n%1 every single time, which is an unnecessary calculation because you know every single integer will be divisible by itself and one. Are there any other ways you can reduce the number of calculations? Perhaps by remembering that if a number is divisible by 20, it is also divisible by 2, 4, 5, and 10?
I can be more specific, but you wanted a pointer in the right direction.
From the looks of it the code works fine, it`s just not the best approach. A simple way of optimizing is doing until the half the number, for example. Also, try thinking about how you could do this using prime factors, it might be another solution. Best of luck!
First you have to def a factor function:
from functools import reduce
def factors(n):
step = 2 if n % 2 else 1
return set(reduce(list.__add__,
([i, n//i] for i in range(1, int(pow(n,0.5) + 1)) if n % i
== 0)))
This will create a set and put all of factors of number n into it.
Second, use while loop until you get 500 factors:
a = 1
x = 1
while len(factors(a)) < 501:
x += 1
a += x
This loop will stop at len(factors(a)) = 500.
Simple print(a) and you will get your answer.
I was playing around with the Singpath Python practice questions. And came across a simple question which asks the following:
Given an input of a list of numbers and a high number,
return the number of multiples
of each of those numbers that are less than the maximum number.
For this case the list will contain a maximum of 3 numbers
that are all relatively prime to each other.
I wrote this simple program, it ran perfectly fine:
"""
Given an input of a list of numbers and a high number,
return the number of multiples
of each of those numbers that are less than the maximum number.
For this case the list will contain a maximum of 3 numbers
that are all relatively prime to each other.
>>> countMultiples([3],30)
9
>>> countMultiples([3,5],100)
46
>>> countMultiples([3,5,7],30)
16
"""
def countMultiples(l, max):
j = []
for num in l:
i = 1
count = 0
while num * i < max:
if num * i not in j:
j.append(num * i)
i += 1
return len(j)
print countMultiples([3],30)
print countMultiples([3,5],100)
print countMultiples([3, 5, 7],30)
But when I try to run the same on SingPath, it gave me this error
Your code took too long to return.
Your solution may be stuck in an infinite loop. Please try again.
Has anyone experienced the same issues with Singpath?
I suspect the error you're getting means exactly what it says. For some input that the test program gives your function, it takes too long to return. I don't know anything about singpath myself, so I don't know exactly how long that might be. But I'd guess that they give you enough time to solve the problem if you use the best algorithm.
You can see for yourself that your code is slow if you pass in a very large max value. Try passing 10000 as max and you may end up waiting for a minute or two to get a result.
There are a couple of reasons your code is slow in these situations. The first is that you have a list of every multiple that you've found so far, and you are searching the list to see if the latest value has already been seen. Each search takes time proportional to the length of the list, so for the whole run of the function, it takes quadratic time (relative to the result value).
You could improve on this quite a lot by using a set instead of a list. You can test if an object is in a set in (amortized) constant time. But if j is a set, you don't actually need to test if a value is already in it before adding, since sets ignore duplicated values anyway. This means you can just add a value to the set without any care about whether it was there already.
def countMultiples(l, max):
j = set() # use a set object, rather than a list
for num in l:
i = 1
count = 0
while num * i < max:
j.add(num*i) # add items to the set unconditionally
i += 1
return len(j) # duplicate values are ignored, and won't be counted
This runs a fair amount faster than the original code, and max values of a million or more will return in a not too unreasonable time. But if you try values larger still (say, 100 million or a billion), you'll eventually still run into trouble. That's because your code uses a loop to find all the multiples, which takes linear time (relative to the result value). Fortunately, there is a better algorithm.
(If you want to figure out the better approach on your own, you might want to stop reading here.)
The better way is to use division to find how many times you can multiply each value to get a value less than max. The number of multiples of num that are strictly less than max is (max-1) // num (the -1 is because we don't want to count max itself). Integer division is much faster than doing a loop!
There is an added complexity though. If you divide to find the number of multiples, you don't actually have the multiples themselves to put in a set like we were doing above. This means that any integer that is a multiple of more than than one of our input numbers will be counted more than once.
Fortunately, there's a good way to fix this. We just need to count how many integers were over counted, and subtract that from our total. When we have two input values, we'll have double counted every integer that is a multiple of their least common multiple (which, since we're guaranteed that they're relatively prime, means their product).
If we have three values, We can do the same subtraction for each pair of numbers. But that won't be exactly right either. The integers that are multiples of all three of our input numbers will be counted three times, then subtracted back out three times as well (since they're multiples of the LCM of each pair of values). So we need to add a final value to make sure those multiples of all three values are included in the final sum exactly once.
import itertools
def countMultiples(numbers, max):
count = 0
for i, num in enumerate(numbers):
count += (max-1) // num # count multiples of num that are less than max
for a, b in itertools.combinations(numbers, 2):
count -= (max-1) // (a*b) # remove double counted numbers
if len(numbers) == 3:
a, b, c = numbers
count += (max-1) // (a*b*c) # add the vals that were removed too many times
return count
This should run in something like constant time for any value of max.
Now, that's probably as efficient as you need to be for the problem you're given (which will always have no more than three values). But if you wanted a solution that would work for more input values, you can write a general version. It uses the same algorithm as the previous version, and uses itertools.combinations a lot more to get different numbers of input values at a time. The number of products of the LCM of odd numbers of values get added to the count, while the number of products of the LCM of even numbers of values are subtracted.
import itertools
from functools import reduce
from operator import mul
def lcm(nums):
return reduce(mul, nums) # this is only correct if nums are all relatively prime
def countMultiples(numbers, max):
count = 0
for n in range(len(numbers)):
for nums in itertools.combinations(numbers, n+1):
count += (-1)**n * (max-1) // lcm(nums)
return count
Here's an example output of this version, which is was computed very quickly:
>>> countMultiples([2,3,5,7,11,13,17], 100000000000000)
81947464300342
It prints diga and digb but doesnt work with c! Any help? It's supposed to be a Denary to Binary converter but only 1-64, once i've cracked the code will increase this! Thanks so much
denaryno=int(input("Write a number from 1-64 "))
if 64%denaryno > 0:
diga=0
remaindera=(64%denaryno)
if 32/denaryno<1:
digb=1
remainderb=(denaryno%32)
else:
digb =0
if 16/remainderb<1:
digc=1
remainderc=(denaryno%16)
else:
digc=0
if 8/remainderc<1:
digd=1
remainderd=(denaryno%8)
else:
digd=0
if 4/remainderd<1:
dige=1
remaindere=(denary%4)
else:
dige=0
if 2/remaindere<1:
digf=1
remainderf=(denary%2)
else:
digf=0
if 1/remainderf<1:
digg=1
remainderg=(denary%1)
else:
digg=0
print (str(diga)+str(digb))
You only set digc in one of the top if/else statement. If 32/denaryno<1 is True, you don't set digc at all.
Set digc at the top of the function (to 0 or whatever else you want it to be). This applies to all the digit variables, digd, dige, etc.
What you really should do, instead, is use a list of digits, and append either a 0 or a 1 to that list every time you divide the number by a factor.
You may want to take a look at the divmod() function; it returns both the quotient and the remainder. You could also do with some looping here to slash the number of if statements needed here:
number = int(input("Write a number from 1-64 "))
digits = []
factor = 64
while number:
quotient, number = divmod(number, factor)
digits.append(quotient)
factor //= 2
print(''.join(map(str, digits)))
Wow that was a lot of work, you don't have to do all that.
def bin_convert(x, count=8):
return "".join(map(lambda y:str((x>>y)&1), range(count-1, -1, -1)))
here are the functions comprising this one from easy->important
str() returns a string
range() is a way to get a list from 1 number to another. Written like this range(count-1, -1, -1) counts backwards.
"".join() is a way to take an iterable and put the pieces together.
map() is a way to take a function and apply it to an iterable.
lambda is a way to write a function in 1 line. I was being lazy and could have written another def func_name(y) and it would have worked just as well.
>> is a way to shift bits. (which I believe understanding this one is the key component to understanding your problem)
So in Ruby there is a trick to specify infinity:
1.0/0
=> Infinity
I believe in Python you can do something like this
float('inf')
These are just examples though, I'm sure most languages have infinity in some capacity. When would you actually use this construct in the real world? Why would using it in a range be better than just using a boolean expression? For instance
(0..1.0/0).include?(number) == (number >= 0) # True for all values of number
=> true
To summarize, what I'm looking for is a real world reason to use Infinity.
EDIT: I'm looking for real world code. It's all well and good to say this is when you "could" use it, when have people actually used it.
Dijkstra's Algorithm typically assigns infinity as the initial edge weights in a graph. This doesn't have to be "infinity", just some arbitrarily constant but in java I typically use Double.Infinity. I assume ruby could be used similarly.
Off the top of the head, it can be useful as an initial value when searching for a minimum value.
For example:
min = float('inf')
for x in somelist:
if x<min:
min=x
Which I prefer to setting min initially to the first value of somelist
Of course, in Python, you should just use the min() built-in function in most cases.
There seems to be an implied "Why does this functionality even exist?" in your question. And the reason is that Ruby and Python are just giving access to the full range of values that one can specify in floating point form as specified by IEEE.
This page seems to describe it well:
http://steve.hollasch.net/cgindex/coding/ieeefloat.html
As a result, you can also have NaN (Not-a-number) values and -0.0, while you may not immediately have real-world uses for those either.
In some physics calculations you can normalize irregularities (ie, infinite numbers) of the same order with each other, canceling them both and allowing a approximate result to come through.
When you deal with limits, calculations like (infinity / infinity) -> approaching a finite a number could be achieved. It's useful for the language to have the ability to overwrite the regular divide-by-zero error.
Use Infinity and -Infinity when implementing a mathematical algorithm calls for it.
In Ruby, Infinity and -Infinity have nice comparative properties so that -Infinity < x < Infinity for any real number x. For example, Math.log(0) returns -Infinity, extending to 0 the property that x > y implies that Math.log(x) > Math.log(y). Also, Infinity * x is Infinity if x > 0, -Infinity if x < 0, and 'NaN' (not a number; that is, undefined) if x is 0.
For example, I use the following bit of code in part of the calculation of some log likelihood ratios. I explicitly reference -Infinity to define a value even if k is 0 or n AND x is 0 or 1.
Infinity = 1.0/0.0
def Similarity.log_l(k, n, x)
unless x == 0 or x == 1
k * Math.log(x.to_f) + (n-k) * Math.log(1.0-x)
end
-Infinity
end
end
Alpha-beta pruning
I use it to specify the mass and inertia of a static object in physics simulations. Static objects are essentially unaffected by gravity and other simulation forces.
In Ruby infinity can be used to implement lazy lists. Say i want N numbers starting at 200 which get successively larger by 100 units each time:
Inf = 1.0 / 0.0
(200..Inf).step(100).take(N)
More info here: http://banisterfiend.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/wtf-infinite-ranges-in-ruby/
I've used it for cases where you want to define ranges of preferences / allowed.
For example in 37signals apps you have like a limit to project number
Infinity = 1 / 0.0
FREE = 0..1
BASIC = 0..5
PREMIUM = 0..Infinity
then you can do checks like
if PREMIUM.include? current_user.projects.count
# do something
end
I used it for representing camera focus distance and to my surprise in Python:
>>> float("inf") is float("inf")
False
>>> float("inf") == float("inf")
True
I wonder why is that.
I've used it in the minimax algorithm. When I'm generating new moves, if the min player wins on that node then the value of the node is -∞. Conversely, if the max player wins then the value of that node is +∞.
Also, if you're generating nodes/game states and then trying out several heuristics you can set all the node values to -∞/+∞ which ever makes sense and then when you're running a heuristic its easy to set the node value:
node_val = -∞
node_val = max(heuristic1(node), node_val)
node_val = max(heuristic2(node), node_val)
node_val = max(heuristic2(node), node_val)
I've used it in a DSL similar to Rails' has_one and has_many:
has 0..1 :author
has 0..INFINITY :tags
This makes it easy to express concepts like Kleene star and plus in your DSL.
I use it when I have a Range object where one or both ends need to be open
I've used symbolic values for positive and negative infinity in dealing with range comparisons to eliminate corner cases that would otherwise require special handling:
Given two ranges A=[a,b) and C=[c,d) do they intersect, is one greater than the other, or does one contain the other?
A > C iff a >= d
A < C iff b <= c
etc...
If you have values for positive and negative infinity that respectively compare greater than and less than all other values, you don't need to do any special handling for open-ended ranges. Since floats and doubles already implement these values, you might as well use them instead of trying to find the largest/smallest values on your platform. With integers, it's more difficult to use "infinity" since it's not supported by hardware.
I ran across this because I'm looking for an "infinite" value to set for a maximum, if a given value doesn't exist, in an attempt to create a binary tree. (Because I'm selecting based on a range of values, and not just a single value, I quickly realized that even a hash won't work in my situation.)
Since I expect all numbers involved to be positive, the minimum is easy: 0. Since I don't know what to expect for a maximum, though, I would like the upper bound to be Infinity of some sort. This way, I won't have to figure out what "maximum" I should compare things to.
Since this is a project I'm working on at work, it's technically a "Real world problem". It may be kindof rare, but like a lot of abstractions, it's convenient when you need it!
Also, to those who say that this (and other examples) are contrived, I would point out that all abstractions are somewhat contrived; that doesn't mean they are useful when you contrive them.
When working in a problem domain where trig is used (especially tangent) infinity is an answer that can come up. Trig ends up being used heavily in graphics applications, games, and geospatial applications, plus the obvious math applications.
I'm sure there are other ways to do this, but you could use Infinity to check for reasonable inputs in a String-to-Float conversion. In Java, at least, the Float.isNaN() static method will return false for numbers with infinite magnitude, indicating they are valid numbers, even though your program might want to classify them as invalid. Checking against the Float.POSITIVE_INFINITY and Float.NEGATIVE_INFINITY constants solves that problem. For example:
// Some sample values to test our code with
String stringValues[] = {
"-999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999",
"12345",
"999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999"
};
// Loop through each string representation
for (String stringValue : stringValues) {
// Convert the string representation to a Float representation
Float floatValue = Float.parseFloat(stringValue);
System.out.println("String representation: " + stringValue);
System.out.println("Result of isNaN: " + floatValue.isNaN());
// Check the result for positive infinity, negative infinity, and
// "normal" float numbers (within the defined range for Float values).
if (floatValue == Float.POSITIVE_INFINITY) {
System.out.println("That number is too big.");
} else if (floatValue == Float.NEGATIVE_INFINITY) {
System.out.println("That number is too small.");
} else {
System.out.println("That number is jussssst right.");
}
}
Sample Output:
String representation: -999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
Result of isNaN: false
That number is too small.
String representation: 12345
Result of isNaN: false
That number is jussssst right.
String representation: 999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
Result of isNaN: false
That number is too big.
It is used quite extensively in graphics. For example, any pixel in a 3D image that is not part of an actual object is marked as infinitely far away. So that it can later be replaced with a background image.
I'm using a network library where you can specify the maximum number of reconnection attempts. Since I want mine to reconnect forever:
my_connection = ConnectionLibrary(max_connection_attempts = float('inf'))
In my opinion, it's more clear than the typical "set to -1 to retry forever" style, since it's literally saying "retry until the number of connection attempts is greater than infinity".
Some programmers use Infinity or NaNs to show a variable has never been initialized or assigned in the program.
If you want the largest number from an input but they might use very large negatives. If I enter -13543124321.431 it still works out as the largest number since it's bigger than -inf.
enter code here
initial_value = float('-inf')
while True:
try:
x = input('gimmee a number or type the word, stop ')
except KeyboardInterrupt:
print("we done - by yo command")
break
if x == "stop":
print("we done")
break
try:
x = float(x)
except ValueError:
print('not a number')
continue
if x > initial_value: initial_value = x
print("The largest number is: " + str(initial_value))
You can to use:
import decimal
decimal.Decimal("Infinity")
or:
from decimal import *
Decimal("Infinity")
For sorting
I've seen it used as a sort value, to say "always sort these items to the bottom".
To specify a non-existent maximum
If you're dealing with numbers, nil represents an unknown quantity, and should be preferred to 0 for that case. Similarly, Infinity represents an unbounded quantity, and should be preferred to (arbitrarily_large_number) in that case.
I think it can make the code cleaner. For example, I'm using Float::INFINITY in a Ruby gem for exactly that: the user can specify a maximum string length for a message, or they can specify :all. In that case, I represent the maximum length as Float::INFINITY, so that later when I check "is this message longer than the maximum length?" the answer will always be false, without needing a special case.