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1000 factorial

Name: Anonymous 2011-04-02 22:59

Well, someone wrote that they could write a program to do 1000! in one line of Haskell. I said that it would take less than 100 lines of C to do the same. I wrote the program, and it is less than 100 lines of C:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

#define LENGTH 10000

int max (int a, int b) { return (a > b) ? a : b; }
int min (int a, int b) { return (b > a) ? a : b; }

int length (unsigned char * a)
 {
   int i;
   i = LENGTH - 1;
   while ((a[i] == 0) && (i >= 0)) i--;
   return i + 1;
 }

void add (unsigned char * a, unsigned char * b)
 {
   int i, c, C;
   c = min(max(length(a), length(b)) + 1, LENGTH);
   for (i = 0, C = 0; i < c; i++)
    {
      a[i] += b[i] + C;
      C = a[i] > 99;
      if (C) a[i] -= 100;
    }
 }

   unsigned char x [LENGTH], y [LENGTH];
void mul (unsigned char * a, unsigned char * b)
 {
   int i, j, c, d, C;
   memset(y, '\0', LENGTH);
   c = min(length(a) + length(b) + 1, LENGTH);
   d = length(b);
   for (i = 0; i < d; i++)
    {
      memset(x, '\0', LENGTH);
      for (j = 0, C = 0; (i + j) < c; j++)
       {
         x[i + j] = (a[j] * b[i] + C) % 100;
         C = (a[j] * b[i] + C) / 100;
       }
      add(y, x);
    }
   memcpy(a, y, LENGTH);
 }

void numset (unsigned char * a, unsigned long b)
 {
   int i;
   for (i = 0; i < LENGTH; i++)
    {
      a[i] = b % 100;
      b /= 100;
    }
 }

int tz (unsigned char * a)
 {
   int i;
   for (i = 0; i < LENGTH; i++) if (a[i] != 0) return 0;
   return 1;
 }

   unsigned char minus1 [LENGTH], prod [LENGTH];
void fact (unsigned char * a)
 {
   numset(prod, 1);
   while (!tz(a))
    {
      mul(prod, a);
      add(a, minus1);
    }
   memcpy(a, prod, LENGTH);
 }

   unsigned char arg_res [LENGTH];
int main (void)
 {
   unsigned long a;
   int i;
   memset (minus1, 99, LENGTH);
   printf("Input the number to take the factorial of: ");
   scanf("%lu", &a);
   numset(arg_res, a);
   fact(arg_res);
   i = LENGTH - 1;
   while (arg_res[i] == 0) i--;
   while (i >= 0)
    {
      printf("%02d", (int) arg_res[i]);
      i--;
    }
   putchar('\n');
   return 0;
 }

Name: Anonymous 2011-04-03 22:54

>>16
OP here. Nice. The math is problem specific, and faster for it.
>>21
Also, nice. You took a language which you wrote factorial in one line, and wrote it in alot of lines, and showed that version to be superior. How the hell does it work?

You have to be smarter than the language. How many C programmers can do ad hoc bignum math that does more than addition and subtraction? How many Scheme programmers can write >>13 ?

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