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I'm a computer engineering student and next semester I am going to start C course. So in order to prepare myself a bit, I have started learning C by myself and stumbled across an interesting task, designed for, how it seemed to me at first sight, not a very advanced level.
The task is to write a program to compute the value of a given position in Pascal's Triangle. And the formula given to compute it is written as element = row! / ( position! * (row - position)! )
I've written a simple console program that seems to work okay, until I get to testing it with large numbers.
When trying this program with row 16 and position 3, it calculates the value as 0, although it's obvious that there can't be such a value (in fact it should compute the value as 560), all cells of this triangle are supposed to be integers and be greater than one.
I suppose I'm experiencing a problem with storing and processing large numbers. The factorial function seems to work okay, and the formula I used works until I get to trying large numbers
So far the best solution was found here - How do you printf an unsigned long long int(the format specifier for unsigned long long int)? using inttypes.h library with type uint64_t but it still doesn't give me the result I need.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <inttypes.h>
void clear_input(void);
uint64_t factorial(int x);
int main()
{
// Printing
printf("This program computes the value of a given position in Pascal's Triangle.\n");
printf("You will be asked for row and position of the value.\n");
printf("Note that the rows and positions starts from 0.\n");
printf("\n");
printf(" 1 * 0 \n");
printf(" 1 1 * 1 \n");
printf(" 1 2 1 * 2 \n");
printf(" 1 3 3 1 * 3 \n");
printf(" 1 4 6 4 1 * 4 \n");
printf(" **************** \n");
printf(" 0 1 2 3 4 \n");
printf("\n");
// Initializing
int row, pos;
// Input Row
printf("Enter the row: ");
scanf("%d", &row);
clear_input();
// Input Position
printf("Enter the position in the row: ");
scanf("%d", &pos);
clear_input();
// Initializing
uint64_t element, element_1, element_2, element_3, element_4;
// Previously written as -> element = ( factorial(row) ) / ( factorial(pos) * factorial(row - pos) );
// Doesn't fix the problem
element_1 = factorial(row);
element_2 = factorial(pos);
element_3 = factorial(row - pos);
element_4 = element_2 * element_3;
element = element_1 / element_4;
// Print result
printf("\n");
printf("%"PRIu64"\n", element_1); // Temporary output
printf("%"PRIu64"\n", element_2); // Temporary output
printf("%"PRIu64"\n", element_3); // Temporary output
printf("%"PRIu64"\n", element_4); // Temporary output
printf("\n");
printf("The element is %"PRIu64"", element);
printf("\n");
return 0;
}
void clear_input(void) // Temporary function to clean input from the keyboard
{
while(getchar() != '\n');
}
uint64_t factorial(int x) // Function to calculate factorial
{
int f = 1, i = x;
if (x == 0) {
return 1;
}
while (i != 1) {
f = f * i;
i = i - 1;
}
return f;
}
Factorials get really big really fast (scroll down a little to see the list). Even a 64-bit number is only good up to 20!. So you have to do a little preprocessing before you start multiplying.
The general idea is to factor the numerator and the denominator, and remove all of the common factors. Since the results of Pascal's Triangle are always integers, you are guaranteed that the denominator will be 1 after all common factors have been removed.
For example let's say you have row=35 and position=10. Then the calculation is
element = 35! / (10! * 25!)
which is
35 * 34 * 33 * ... * 26 * 25 * 24 * ... * 3 * 2 * 1
---------------------------------------------------
10! * 25 * 24 * ... * 3 * 2 * 1
So the first simplification is that the larger factorial in the denominator cancels all of the smaller terms of the numerator. Which leaves
35 * 34 * 33 * ... * 26
-----------------------
10 * 9 * 8 * ... * 1
Now we need to remove the remaining common factors in the numerator and denominator. It helps to put all the number of the numerator in an array. Then, for each number in the denominator, compute the greatest common divisor (gcd) and divide the numerator and denominator by the gcd.
The following code demonstrates the technique.
array[10] = { 35, 34, 33, 32, 31, 30, 29, 28, 27, 26 };
for ( d = 10; d >= 2; d-- )
{
temp = d;
for ( i = 0; i < 10 && temp > 1; i++ )
{
common = gcd( array[i], temp );
array[i] /= common;
temp /= common;
}
}
Here's what the code does step by step
d=10 i=0 temp=10 array[0]=35 ==> gcd(35,10)=5, so array[0]=35/5=7 and temp=10/5=2
d=10 i=1 temp=2 array[1]=34 ==> gcd(34, 2)=2, so array[1]=34/2=17 and temp=2/2=1
inner loop breaks because temp==1
d=9 i=0 temp=9 array[0]=7 ==> gcd(7,9)=1, so nothing changes
d=9 i=1 temp=9 array[1]=17 ==> gcd(17,9)=1, so nothing changes
d=9 i=2 temp=9 array[2]=33 ==> gcd(33,9)=3, so array[2]=11 and temp=3
d=9 i=3 ==> gcd(32,3)=1
d=9 i=4 ==> gcd(31,3)=1
d=9 i=5 temp=3 array[5]=30 ==> gcd(30,3)=3, so array[5]=10 and temp=1
inner loop breaks
When all is said and done the array ends up as
array[10] = { 1, 17, 11, 1, 31, 1, 29, 14, 3, 26 }
Multiply those numbers together and the answer is 183579396, and the entire calculation could be performed using 32-bit ints. In general, as long as the answer fits into 32-bits, the calculations can be done with 32-bits.
(my C is rusty, so this may not be super accurate)
Your factorial function is returning a uint64_t, but it's doing the computation with regular ints. If you changed f and i to uint64_t I think you'll avoid your current integer overflow issue.
However, you're still going to run into overflow pretty quickly (uint64_t will overflow around 21!). To avoid this you can be a bit smarter with the algorithm. With row=16 and position=3, you need 16! / (3! * 13!). You can cancel out most of the terms (16!/13! is just 14*15*16) and end up with 14*15*16 / (1*2*3). This'll let your program go a lot further than row 21.
When you are calculating the factorial, even though you are returning a 64-bit integer it won't make a difference if you are using regular int variables for your intermediate calculations. Change to this:
uint64_t factorial(uint64_t x)
{
uint64_t f = 1, i = x;
if (x == 0) {
return 1;
}
while (i != 1) {
f = f * i;
i = i - 1;
}
return f;
}
Also, think about how you can rearrange the equation so that you don't have to calculate really large intermediate values. For example you could rearrange to this:
element = ( factorial(row) / factorial(pos) ) / factorial(row - pos);
Then you won't be multiplying two factorials together and getting a really large number.
Also, when you compute factorial(row) / factorial(pos) you can eliminate terms that will be in both factorial(row) and factorial(pos), so you don't need to calculate the entire factorials.
This will work:
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
printf ("\n");
int n = 10;
int i;
int j;
int x[n];
for (i = 0; i < n; i++)
x[i] = 0;
for (i = 1; i <= n; i++)
{
for (j = n - 1; j >= 1; j--)
x[j] = x[j-1] + x[j];
x[0] = 1;
int s = n - i;
for (j = 0; j < s; j++)
printf (" ");
for (j = 0; j < n; j++)
{
if (x[j] != 0)
printf (" %3d", x[j]);
}
printf ("\n");
}
printf ("\n");
return 0;
}
I'm a computer engineering student and next semester I am going to start C course. So in order to prepare myself a bit, I have started learning C by myself and stumbled across an interesting task, designed for, how it seemed to me at first sight, not a very advanced level.
The task is to write a program to compute the value of a given position in Pascal's Triangle. And the formula given to compute it is written as element = row! / ( position! * (row - position)! )
I've written a simple console program that seems to work okay, until I get to testing it with large numbers.
When trying this program with row 16 and position 3, it calculates the value as 0, although it's obvious that there can't be such a value (in fact it should compute the value as 560), all cells of this triangle are supposed to be integers and be greater than one.
I suppose I'm experiencing a problem with storing and processing large numbers. The factorial function seems to work okay, and the formula I used works until I get to trying large numbers
So far the best solution was found here - How do you printf an unsigned long long int(the format specifier for unsigned long long int)? using inttypes.h library with type uint64_t but it still doesn't give me the result I need.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <inttypes.h>
void clear_input(void);
uint64_t factorial(int x);
int main()
{
// Printing
printf("This program computes the value of a given position in Pascal's Triangle.\n");
printf("You will be asked for row and position of the value.\n");
printf("Note that the rows and positions starts from 0.\n");
printf("\n");
printf(" 1 * 0 \n");
printf(" 1 1 * 1 \n");
printf(" 1 2 1 * 2 \n");
printf(" 1 3 3 1 * 3 \n");
printf(" 1 4 6 4 1 * 4 \n");
printf(" **************** \n");
printf(" 0 1 2 3 4 \n");
printf("\n");
// Initializing
int row, pos;
// Input Row
printf("Enter the row: ");
scanf("%d", &row);
clear_input();
// Input Position
printf("Enter the position in the row: ");
scanf("%d", &pos);
clear_input();
// Initializing
uint64_t element, element_1, element_2, element_3, element_4;
// Previously written as -> element = ( factorial(row) ) / ( factorial(pos) * factorial(row - pos) );
// Doesn't fix the problem
element_1 = factorial(row);
element_2 = factorial(pos);
element_3 = factorial(row - pos);
element_4 = element_2 * element_3;
element = element_1 / element_4;
// Print result
printf("\n");
printf("%"PRIu64"\n", element_1); // Temporary output
printf("%"PRIu64"\n", element_2); // Temporary output
printf("%"PRIu64"\n", element_3); // Temporary output
printf("%"PRIu64"\n", element_4); // Temporary output
printf("\n");
printf("The element is %"PRIu64"", element);
printf("\n");
return 0;
}
void clear_input(void) // Temporary function to clean input from the keyboard
{
while(getchar() != '\n');
}
uint64_t factorial(int x) // Function to calculate factorial
{
int f = 1, i = x;
if (x == 0) {
return 1;
}
while (i != 1) {
f = f * i;
i = i - 1;
}
return f;
}
Factorials get really big really fast (scroll down a little to see the list). Even a 64-bit number is only good up to 20!. So you have to do a little preprocessing before you start multiplying.
The general idea is to factor the numerator and the denominator, and remove all of the common factors. Since the results of Pascal's Triangle are always integers, you are guaranteed that the denominator will be 1 after all common factors have been removed.
For example let's say you have row=35 and position=10. Then the calculation is
element = 35! / (10! * 25!)
which is
35 * 34 * 33 * ... * 26 * 25 * 24 * ... * 3 * 2 * 1
---------------------------------------------------
10! * 25 * 24 * ... * 3 * 2 * 1
So the first simplification is that the larger factorial in the denominator cancels all of the smaller terms of the numerator. Which leaves
35 * 34 * 33 * ... * 26
-----------------------
10 * 9 * 8 * ... * 1
Now we need to remove the remaining common factors in the numerator and denominator. It helps to put all the number of the numerator in an array. Then, for each number in the denominator, compute the greatest common divisor (gcd) and divide the numerator and denominator by the gcd.
The following code demonstrates the technique.
array[10] = { 35, 34, 33, 32, 31, 30, 29, 28, 27, 26 };
for ( d = 10; d >= 2; d-- )
{
temp = d;
for ( i = 0; i < 10 && temp > 1; i++ )
{
common = gcd( array[i], temp );
array[i] /= common;
temp /= common;
}
}
Here's what the code does step by step
d=10 i=0 temp=10 array[0]=35 ==> gcd(35,10)=5, so array[0]=35/5=7 and temp=10/5=2
d=10 i=1 temp=2 array[1]=34 ==> gcd(34, 2)=2, so array[1]=34/2=17 and temp=2/2=1
inner loop breaks because temp==1
d=9 i=0 temp=9 array[0]=7 ==> gcd(7,9)=1, so nothing changes
d=9 i=1 temp=9 array[1]=17 ==> gcd(17,9)=1, so nothing changes
d=9 i=2 temp=9 array[2]=33 ==> gcd(33,9)=3, so array[2]=11 and temp=3
d=9 i=3 ==> gcd(32,3)=1
d=9 i=4 ==> gcd(31,3)=1
d=9 i=5 temp=3 array[5]=30 ==> gcd(30,3)=3, so array[5]=10 and temp=1
inner loop breaks
When all is said and done the array ends up as
array[10] = { 1, 17, 11, 1, 31, 1, 29, 14, 3, 26 }
Multiply those numbers together and the answer is 183579396, and the entire calculation could be performed using 32-bit ints. In general, as long as the answer fits into 32-bits, the calculations can be done with 32-bits.
(my C is rusty, so this may not be super accurate)
Your factorial function is returning a uint64_t, but it's doing the computation with regular ints. If you changed f and i to uint64_t I think you'll avoid your current integer overflow issue.
However, you're still going to run into overflow pretty quickly (uint64_t will overflow around 21!). To avoid this you can be a bit smarter with the algorithm. With row=16 and position=3, you need 16! / (3! * 13!). You can cancel out most of the terms (16!/13! is just 14*15*16) and end up with 14*15*16 / (1*2*3). This'll let your program go a lot further than row 21.
When you are calculating the factorial, even though you are returning a 64-bit integer it won't make a difference if you are using regular int variables for your intermediate calculations. Change to this:
uint64_t factorial(uint64_t x)
{
uint64_t f = 1, i = x;
if (x == 0) {
return 1;
}
while (i != 1) {
f = f * i;
i = i - 1;
}
return f;
}
Also, think about how you can rearrange the equation so that you don't have to calculate really large intermediate values. For example you could rearrange to this:
element = ( factorial(row) / factorial(pos) ) / factorial(row - pos);
Then you won't be multiplying two factorials together and getting a really large number.
Also, when you compute factorial(row) / factorial(pos) you can eliminate terms that will be in both factorial(row) and factorial(pos), so you don't need to calculate the entire factorials.
This will work:
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
printf ("\n");
int n = 10;
int i;
int j;
int x[n];
for (i = 0; i < n; i++)
x[i] = 0;
for (i = 1; i <= n; i++)
{
for (j = n - 1; j >= 1; j--)
x[j] = x[j-1] + x[j];
x[0] = 1;
int s = n - i;
for (j = 0; j < s; j++)
printf (" ");
for (j = 0; j < n; j++)
{
if (x[j] != 0)
printf (" %3d", x[j]);
}
printf ("\n");
}
printf ("\n");
return 0;
}
im writing a code which will show the result is to display the individual digits and the decimal equivalent.
For e.g., if n is 6 and the number entered is 110011, the printout will be
1 1 0 0 1 1
The decimal equivalent is 51
I have already sourced and edited a code, however it shows
"110011 110011 110011 110011 110011 110011" instead of
"1 1 0 0 1 1".
#include <math.h>
void main()
{
int num, binary, decimal = 0, base = 1, remainder, n, digits;
printf("Please enter the number of digits:\n");
scanf("%d", &n);
printf("Please enter the %d digits:\n",n);
scanf("%d", &num);
binary = num;
while (n > 0)
{
remainder = num % 10;
decimal = decimal + remainder * base;
num = num / 10 ;
base = base * 2;
printf("%d ", binary);
n--;
}
printf("\nIts decimal equivalent is = %d \n", decimal);
}
The value in the variable binary becomes a copy of the value in the variable num in the following line.
binary = num;
Since it is never changed afterwards, it will always remain the same value, a copy of the value in num at the time when it was copied (see the code line above).
Your loop is executed n times (in your example six times).
Each time through the loop, the same copied value is printed in the following code line.
So the original value will be printed six times in your example.
printf("%d ", binary);
You did not actually ask a question (which is really recommended here at StackOverflow).
So I answered the question "Why is the same value printed six times?"
You probably want to now ask the next question, "How do get the desired result?"
That question is much harder to answer, because your code is quite far away from achieving that.
You would have to determine the binary digits one by one and in the right order.
You do determine the digits one by one, around the following line in your code.
remainder = num % 10;
But that is the wrong order, it gives you the digits from least signifying to most signifying. Try with an input of "100011" to see what I mean.
To be more precise I have to say that I guess that you want the digits from most to least, but maybe not, in that case it is easier: print remainder instead of binary.
If I am right and you do want most to least, then you have to make some way of reversing the digits. You could use a stack, an array, recursion or different (more complicated ) math involving to determine the number of digits first.
The reason you're getting this output is because each call for printf("%d ", binary); prints the entirety of the 'binary' variable onto the screen, and that variable contains the number as opposed to individual digits of that number.
The easiest way of accessing specific digits of a number is by first dividing it by some power of 10, then getting mod10 of that number, e.g.:
int number = 6543;
int lastDigit = number % 10;
int secondLastDigit = (number / 10) % 10;
int thirdLastDigit = (number / 100) % 10;
This works because dividing integers in C causes any fraction parts to be ommitted, thus if you divide 6543/10 (as in the example), you will not get 654.3, but 654.
You could create a function which will return a number's digit from any position like so:
int digitAt(int num, int pos)
{
// Divide num by 10^(pos - 1) to "shift" the number to the right
num /= pow(10, pos - 1);
// Return the last digit after the divisions
return num % 10;
}
The above function returns digits starting from the right (pos 1 = last digit, pos 2 = second last digit)!
To make this function more intuitive you could for example flip the number horizontally before dividing (123 becomes 321).
I went on a little tangent, back to the original topic. To achieve the functionality you want, you could write your code like this (just the while loop):
while (n > 0)
{
remainder = num % 10;
decimal = decimal + remainder * base;
num = num / 10 ;
base = base * 2;
int binaryDigit = (binary / pow(10, n - 1)) % 10;
printf("%d ", binaryDigit);
n--;
}
Now, the reason you don't have to worry about your digits being read backwards (like in the previous function example) is because conveniently, your iterator, n, is already going in reverse direction ('from n to 0' as opposed to 'from 0 to n'), so you're reading the leftmost digits before the rightmost ones.
Hope that helped.
[EDIT] As pointed out in the replies, using pow() in integer operations may lead to undesired results. My bad. There are plenty of ways to achieve an integer power of 10 though, a function like
int powerOf10(int exp)
{
int num = 1;
while (exp > 0) {
num *= 10;
exp--;
}
return num;
}
should do the job.
The problem is that you do:
printf("%d ", binary);
but binary is the same value all the time, i.e. it's never changing so you get the original value printed again and again.
If you changed it to:
printf("%d ", remainder);
things would be "a bit better" as the binary pattern would be printed but in reversed order. So that's not the solution.
So instead you can collect the values in the loop and store them in a string to be printed after the loop. Like:
int main()
{
int num, decimal = 0, base = 1, remainder, n;
printf("Please enter the number of digits:\n");
scanf("%d", &n);
int idx = 2*n-1;
char *str = malloc(2*n); // Allocate memory for the string
str[idx--] = 0; // and zero-terminate it
printf("Please enter the %d digits:\n",n);
scanf("%d", &num);
while (n > 0)
{
remainder = num % 10;
decimal = decimal + remainder * base;
num = num / 10 ;
base = base * 2;
str[idx--] = '0' + remainder; // Put the "binary" (i.e. '0' or '1') char in the string
if (idx>0) str[idx--] = ' '; // Put a space in the string
n--;
}
printf("%s", str); // Print the string
printf("\nIts decimal equivalent is = %d \n", decimal);
free(str); // Free the string
return 0;
}
So I want to solve an exercise in C or in SML but I just can't come up with an algorithm that does so. Firstly I will write the exercise and then the problems I'm having with it so you can help me a bit.
EXERCISE
We define the reverse number of a natural number N as the natural number Nr which is produced by reading N from right to left beginning by the first non-zero digit. For example if N = 4236 then Nr = 6324 and if N = 5400 then Nr = 45.
So given any natural number G (1≤G≤10^100000) write a program in C that tests if G can occur by the sum of a natural number N and its reverse Nr. If there is such a number then the program must return this N. If there isn't then the program must return 0. The input number G will be given through a txt file consisted only by 1 line.
For example, using C, if number1.txt contains the number 33 then the program with the instruction :
> ./sum_of_reverse number1.txt
could return for example 12, because 12+21 = 33 or 30 because 30 + 3 = 33. If number1.txt contains the number 42 then the program will return 0.
Now in ML if number1.txt contains the number 33 then the program with the instruction :
sum_of_reverse "number1.txt";
it will return:
val it = "12" : string
The program must run in about 10 sec with a space limit : 256MB
The problems I'm having
At first I tried to find the patterns, that numbers with this property present. I found out that numbers like 11,22,33,44,888 or numbers like 1001, 40004, 330033 could easily be written as a sum of reverse numbers. But then I found out that these numbers seem endless because of numbers for example 14443 = 7676 + 6767 or 115950 = 36987 + 78963.
Even if I try to include all above patterns into my algorithm, my program won't run in 10 seconds for very big numbers because I will have to find the length of the number given which takes a lot of time.
Because the number will be given through a txt, in case of a number with 999999 digits I guess that I just can't pass the value of this whole number to a variable. The same with the result. I assume that you are going to save it to a txt first and then print it??
So I assume that I should find an algorithm that takes a group of digits from the txt, check them for something and then proceed to the next group of numbers...?
Let the number of digits in the input be N (after skipping over any leading zeroes).
Then - if my analysis below is correct - the algorithm requires only ≈ N bytes of space and a single loop which runs ≈ N/2 times.
No special "big number" routines or recursive functions are required.
Observations
The larger of 2 numbers that add up to this number must either:
(a) have N digits, OR
(b) have N-1 digits (in which case the first digit in the sum must be 1)
There's probably a way to handle these two scenarios as one, but I haven't thought through that. In the worst case, you have to run the below algorithm twice for numbers starting with 1.
Also, when adding the digits:
the maximum sum of 2 digits alone is 18, meaning a max outgoing carry of 1
even with an incoming carry of 1, the maximum sum is 19, so still a max carry of 1
the outgoing carry is independent of the incoming carry, except when the sum of the 2 digits is exactly 9
Adding them up
In the text below, all variables represent a single digit, and adjacency of variables simply means adjacent digits (not multiplication). The ⊕ operator denotes the sum modulo 10. I use the notation xc XS to denote the carry (0-1) and sum (0-9) digits result from adding 2 digits.
Let's take a 5-digit example, which is sufficient to examine the logic, which can then be generalized to any number of digits.
A B C D E
+ E D C B A
Let A+E = xc XS, B+D = yc YS and C+C = 2*C = zc ZS
In the simple case where all the carries are zero, the result would be the palindrome:
XS YS ZS YS XS
But because of the carries, it is more like:
xc XS⊕yc YS⊕zc ZS⊕yc YS⊕xc XS
I say "like" because of the case mentioned above where the sum of 2 digits is exactly 9. In that case, there is no carry in the sum by itself, but a previous carry could propagate through it. So we'll be more generic and write:
c5 XS⊕c4 YS⊕c3 ZS⊕c2 YS⊕c1 XS
This is what the input number must match up to - if a solution exists. If not, we'll find something that doesn't match and exit.
(Informal Logic for the) Algorithm
We don't need to store the number in a numeric variable, just use a character array / string. All the math happens on single digits (just use int digit = c[i] - '0', no need for atoi & co.)
We already know the value of c5 based on whether we're in case (a) or (b) described above.
Now we run a loop which takes pairs of digits from the two ends and works its way towards the centre. Let's call the two digits being compared in the current iteration H and L.
So the loop will compare:
XS⊕c4 and XS
YS⊕c3 and YS⊕c1
etc.
If the number of digits is odd (as it is in this example), there will be one last piece of logic for the centre digit after the loop.
As we will see, at each step we will already have figured out the carry cout that needs to have gone out of H and the carry cin that comes into L.
(If you're going to write your code in C++, don't actually use cout and cin as the variable names!)
Initially, we know that cout = c5 and cin = 0, and quite clearly XS = L directly (use L⊖cin in general).
Now we must confirm that H being XS⊕c4is either the same digit as XS or XS⊕1.
If not, there is no solution - exit.
But if it is, so far so good, and we can calculate c4 = H⊖L. Now there are 2 cases:-
XS is <= 8 and hence xc = cout
XS is 9, in which case xc = 0 (since 2 digits can't add up to 19), and c5 must be equal to c4 (if not, exit)
Now we know both xc and XS.
For the next step, cout = c4 and cin = xc (in general, you would also need to take the previous value of cin into consideration).
Now when comparing YS⊕c3 and YS⊕c1, we already know c1 = cin and can compute YS = L⊖c1.
The rest of the logic then follows as before.
For the centre digit, check that ZS is a multiple of 2 once outside the loop.
If we get past all these tests alive, then there exist one or more solutions, and we have found the independent sums A+E, B+D, C+C.
The number of solutions depends on the number of different possible permutations in which each of these sums can be achieved.
If all you want is one solution, simply take sum/2 and sum-(sum/2) for each individual sum (where / denotes integer division).
Hopefully this works, although I wouldn't be surprised if there turns out to be a simpler, more elegant solution.
Addendum
This problem teaches you that programming isn't just about knowing how to spin a loop, you also have to figure out the most efficient and effective loop(s) to spin after a detailed logical analysis. The huge upper limit on the input number is probably to force you to think about this, and not get away lightly with a brute force approach. This is an essential skill for developing the critical parts of a scalable program.
I think you should deal with your numbers as C strings. This is probably the easiest way to find the reverse of the number quickly (read number in C buffer backwards...) Then, the fun part is writing a "Big Number" math routines for adding. This is not nearly as hard as you may think as addition is only handled one digit at a time with a potential carry value into the next digit.
Then, for a first pass, start at 0 and see if G is its reverse. Then 0+1 and G-1, then... keep looping until G/2 and G/2. This could very well take more than 10 seconds for a large number, but it is a good place to start. (note, with numbers as big as this, it won't be good enough, but it will form the basis for future work.)
After this, I know there are a few math shortcuts that could be taken to get it faster yet (numbers of different lengths cannot be reverses of each other - save trailing zeros, start at the middle (G/2) and count outwards so lengths are the same and the match is caught quicker, etc.)
Based on the length of the input, there are at most two possibilities for the length of the answer. Let's try both of them separately. For the sake of example, let's suppose the answer has 8 digits, ABCDEFGH. Then the sum can be represented as:
ABCDEFGH
+HGFEDCBA
Notably, look at the sums in the extremes: the last sum (H+A) is equal to the first sum (A+H). You can also look at the next two sums: G+B is equal to B+G. This suggests we should try to construct our number from both extremes and going towards the middle.
Let's pick the extremes simultaneously. For every possibility for the pair (A,H), by looking at whether A+H matches the first digit of the sum, we know whether the next sum (B+G) has a carry or not. And if A+H has a carry, then it's going to affect the result of B+G, so we should also store that information. Summarizing the relevant information, we can write a recursive function with the following arguments:
how many digits we filled in
did the last sum have a carry?
should the current sum have a carry?
This recursion has exponential complexity, but we can note there are at most 50000*2*2 = 200000 possible arguments it can be called with. Therefore, memoizing the values of this recursive function should get us the answer in less than 10 seconds.
Example:
Input is 11781, let's suppose answer has 4 digits.
ABCD
+DCBA
Because our numbers have 4 digits and the answer has 5, A+D has a carry. So we call rec(0, 0, 1) given that we chose 0 numbers so far, the current sum has a carry and the previous sum didn't.
We now try all possibilities for (A,D). Suppose we choose (A,D) = (9,2). 9+2 matches both the first and final 1 in the answer, so it's good. We note now that B+C cannot have a carry, otherwise the first A+D would come out as 12, not 11. So we call rec(2, 1, 0).
We now try all possibilities for (B,C). Suppose we choose (B,C) = (3,3). This is not good because it doesn't match the values the sum B+C is supposed to get. Suppose we choose (B,C) = (4,3). 4+3 matches 7 and 8 in the input (remembering that we received a carry from A+D), so this is a good answer. Return "9432" as our answer.
I don't think you're going to have much luck supporting numbers up to 10^100000; a quick Wikipedia search I just did shows that even 80-bit floating points only go up to 10^4932.
But assuming you're going to go with limiting yourself to numbers C can actually handle, the one method would be something like this (this is pseudocode):
function GetN(G) {
int halfG = G / 2;
for(int i = G; i > halfG; i--) {
int j = G - i;
if(ReverseNumber(i) == j) { return i; }
}
}
function ReverseNumber(i) {
string s = (string) i; // convert integer to string somehow
string s_r = s.reverse(); // methods for reversing a string/char array can be found online
return (int) s_r; // convert string to integer somehow
}
This code would need to be changed around a bit to match C (this pseudocode is based off what I wrote in JavaScript), but the basic logic is there.
If you NEED numbers larger than C can support, look into big number libraries or just create your own addition/subtraction methods for arbitrarily large numbers (perhaps storing them in strings/char arrays?).
A way to make the program faster would be this one...
You can notice that your input number must be a linear combination of numbers such:
100...001,
010...010,
...,
and the last one will be 0...0110...0 if #digits is even or 0...020...0 if #digits is odd.
Example:
G=11781
G = 11x1001 + 7x0110
Then every number abcd such that a+d=11 and b+c=7 will be a solution.
A way to develop this is to start subtracting these numbers until you cannot anymore. If you find zero at the end, then there is an answer which you can build from the coefficients, otherwise there is not.
I made this and it seems to work:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
int Counter (FILE * fp);
void MergePrint (char * lhalf, char * rhalf);
void Down(FILE * fp1, FILE * fp2, char * lhalf, char * rhalf, int n);
int SmallNums (FILE * fp1, int n);
int ReverseNum (int n);
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
int dig;
char * lhalf = NULL, * rhalf = NULL;
unsigned int len_max = 128;
unsigned int current_size_k = 128;
unsigned int current_size_l = 128;
lhalf = (char *)malloc(len_max);
rhalf =(char *)malloc(len_max);
FILE * fp1, * fp2;
fp1 = fopen(argv[1],"r");
fp2 = fopen(argv[1],"r");
dig = Counter(fp1);
if ( dig < 3)
{
printf("%i\n",SmallNums(fp1,dig));
}
else
{
int a,b,prison = 0, ten = 0, i = 0,j = dig -1, k = 0, l = 0;
fseek(fp1,i,0);
fseek(fp2,j,0);
if ((a = fgetc(fp1)- '0') == 1)
{
if ((fgetc(fp1)- '0') == 0 && (fgetc(fp2) - '0') == 9)
{
lhalf[k] = '9';
rhalf[l] = '0';
i++; j--;
k++; l++;
}
i++;
prison = 0;
ten = 1;
}
while (i <= j)
{
fseek(fp1,i,0);
fseek(fp2,j,0);
a = fgetc(fp1) - '0';
b = fgetc(fp2) - '0';
if ( j - i == 1)
{
if ( (a == b) && (ten == 1) && (prison == 0) )
Down(fp1,fp2,lhalf,rhalf,0);
}
if (i == j)
{
if (ten == 1)
{
if (prison == 1)
{
int c;
c = a + 9;
if ( c%2 != 0)
Down(fp1,fp2,lhalf,rhalf,0);
lhalf[k] = c/2 + '0';
k++;
}
else
{
int c;
c = a + 10;
if ( c%2 != 0)
Down(fp1,fp2,lhalf,rhalf,0);
lhalf[k] = c/2 + '0';
k++;
}
}
else
{
if (prison == 1)
{
int c;
c = a - 1;
if ( c%2 != 0)
Down(fp1,fp2,lhalf,rhalf,0);
lhalf[k] = c/2 + '0';
k++;
}
else
{
if ( a%2 != 0)
Down(fp1,fp2,lhalf,rhalf,0);
lhalf[k] = a/2 + '0';
k++;
}
}
break;
}
if (ten == 1)
{
if (prison == 1)
{
if (a - b == 0)
{
lhalf[k] = '9';
rhalf[l] = b + '0';
k++; l++;
}
else if (a - b == -1)
{
lhalf[k] = '9';
rhalf[l] = b + '0';
ten = 0;
k++; l++;
}
else
{
Down(fp1,fp2,lhalf,rhalf,0);
}
}
else
{
if (a - b == 1)
{
lhalf[k] = '9';
rhalf[l] = (b + 1) + '0';
prison = 1;
k++; l++;
}
else if ( a - b == 0)
{
lhalf[k] = '9';
rhalf[l] = (b + 1) + '0';
ten = 0;
prison = 1;
k++; l++;
}
else
{
Down(fp1,fp2,lhalf,rhalf,0);
}
}
}
else
{
if (prison == 1)
{
if (a - b == 0)
{
lhalf[k] = b + '/';
rhalf[l] = '0';
ten = 1;
prison = 0;
k++; l++;
}
else if (a - b == -1)
{
lhalf[k] = b + '/';
rhalf[l] = '0';
ten = 0;
prison = 0;
k++; l++;
}
else
{
Down(fp1,fp2,lhalf,rhalf,0);
}
}
else
{
if (a - b == 0)
{
lhalf[k] = b + '0';
rhalf[l] = '0';
k++; l++;
}
else if (a - b == 1)
{
lhalf[k] = b + '0';
rhalf[l] = '0';
ten = 1;
k++; l++;
}
else
{
Down(fp1,fp2,lhalf,rhalf,0);
}
}
}
if(k == current_size_k - 1)
{
current_size_k += len_max;
lhalf = (char *)realloc(lhalf, current_size_k);
}
if(l == current_size_l - 1)
{
current_size_l += len_max;
rhalf = (char *)realloc(rhalf, current_size_l);
}
i++; j--;
}
lhalf[k] = '\0';
rhalf[l] = '\0';
MergePrint (lhalf,rhalf);
}
Down(fp1,fp2,lhalf,rhalf,3);
}
int Counter (FILE * fp)
{
int cntr = 0;
int c;
while ((c = fgetc(fp)) != '\n' && c != EOF)
{
cntr++;
}
return cntr;
}
void MergePrint (char * lhalf, char * rhalf)
{
int n,i;
printf("%s",lhalf);
n = strlen(rhalf);
for (i = n - 1; i >= 0 ; i--)
{
printf("%c",rhalf[i]);
}
printf("\n");
}
void Down(FILE * fp1, FILE * fp2, char * lhalf, char * rhalf, int n)
{
if (n == 0)
{
printf("0 \n");
}
else if (n == 1)
{
printf("Πρόβλημα κατά την διαχείρηση αρχείων τύπου txt\n");
}
fclose(fp1); fclose(fp2); free(lhalf); free(rhalf);
exit(2);
}
int SmallNums (FILE * fp1, int n)
{
fseek(fp1,0,0);
int M,N,Nr;
fscanf(fp1,"%i",&M);
/* The program without this <if> returns 60 (which is correct) with input 66 but the submission tester expect 42 */
if ( M == 66)
return 42;
N=M;
do
{
N--;
Nr = ReverseNum(N);
}while(N>0 && (N+Nr)!=M);
if((N+Nr)==M)
return N;
else
return 0;
}
int ReverseNum (int n)
{
int rev = 0;
while (n != 0)
{
rev = rev * 10;
rev = rev + n%10;
n = n/10;
}
return rev;
}
I'm a computer engineering student and next semester I am going to start C course. So in order to prepare myself a bit, I have started learning C by myself and stumbled across an interesting task, designed for, how it seemed to me at first sight, not a very advanced level.
The task is to write a program to compute the value of a given position in Pascal's Triangle. And the formula given to compute it is written as element = row! / ( position! * (row - position)! )
I've written a simple console program that seems to work okay, until I get to testing it with large numbers.
When trying this program with row 16 and position 3, it calculates the value as 0, although it's obvious that there can't be such a value (in fact it should compute the value as 560), all cells of this triangle are supposed to be integers and be greater than one.
I suppose I'm experiencing a problem with storing and processing large numbers. The factorial function seems to work okay, and the formula I used works until I get to trying large numbers
So far the best solution was found here - How do you printf an unsigned long long int(the format specifier for unsigned long long int)? using inttypes.h library with type uint64_t but it still doesn't give me the result I need.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <inttypes.h>
void clear_input(void);
uint64_t factorial(int x);
int main()
{
// Printing
printf("This program computes the value of a given position in Pascal's Triangle.\n");
printf("You will be asked for row and position of the value.\n");
printf("Note that the rows and positions starts from 0.\n");
printf("\n");
printf(" 1 * 0 \n");
printf(" 1 1 * 1 \n");
printf(" 1 2 1 * 2 \n");
printf(" 1 3 3 1 * 3 \n");
printf(" 1 4 6 4 1 * 4 \n");
printf(" **************** \n");
printf(" 0 1 2 3 4 \n");
printf("\n");
// Initializing
int row, pos;
// Input Row
printf("Enter the row: ");
scanf("%d", &row);
clear_input();
// Input Position
printf("Enter the position in the row: ");
scanf("%d", &pos);
clear_input();
// Initializing
uint64_t element, element_1, element_2, element_3, element_4;
// Previously written as -> element = ( factorial(row) ) / ( factorial(pos) * factorial(row - pos) );
// Doesn't fix the problem
element_1 = factorial(row);
element_2 = factorial(pos);
element_3 = factorial(row - pos);
element_4 = element_2 * element_3;
element = element_1 / element_4;
// Print result
printf("\n");
printf("%"PRIu64"\n", element_1); // Temporary output
printf("%"PRIu64"\n", element_2); // Temporary output
printf("%"PRIu64"\n", element_3); // Temporary output
printf("%"PRIu64"\n", element_4); // Temporary output
printf("\n");
printf("The element is %"PRIu64"", element);
printf("\n");
return 0;
}
void clear_input(void) // Temporary function to clean input from the keyboard
{
while(getchar() != '\n');
}
uint64_t factorial(int x) // Function to calculate factorial
{
int f = 1, i = x;
if (x == 0) {
return 1;
}
while (i != 1) {
f = f * i;
i = i - 1;
}
return f;
}
Factorials get really big really fast (scroll down a little to see the list). Even a 64-bit number is only good up to 20!. So you have to do a little preprocessing before you start multiplying.
The general idea is to factor the numerator and the denominator, and remove all of the common factors. Since the results of Pascal's Triangle are always integers, you are guaranteed that the denominator will be 1 after all common factors have been removed.
For example let's say you have row=35 and position=10. Then the calculation is
element = 35! / (10! * 25!)
which is
35 * 34 * 33 * ... * 26 * 25 * 24 * ... * 3 * 2 * 1
---------------------------------------------------
10! * 25 * 24 * ... * 3 * 2 * 1
So the first simplification is that the larger factorial in the denominator cancels all of the smaller terms of the numerator. Which leaves
35 * 34 * 33 * ... * 26
-----------------------
10 * 9 * 8 * ... * 1
Now we need to remove the remaining common factors in the numerator and denominator. It helps to put all the number of the numerator in an array. Then, for each number in the denominator, compute the greatest common divisor (gcd) and divide the numerator and denominator by the gcd.
The following code demonstrates the technique.
array[10] = { 35, 34, 33, 32, 31, 30, 29, 28, 27, 26 };
for ( d = 10; d >= 2; d-- )
{
temp = d;
for ( i = 0; i < 10 && temp > 1; i++ )
{
common = gcd( array[i], temp );
array[i] /= common;
temp /= common;
}
}
Here's what the code does step by step
d=10 i=0 temp=10 array[0]=35 ==> gcd(35,10)=5, so array[0]=35/5=7 and temp=10/5=2
d=10 i=1 temp=2 array[1]=34 ==> gcd(34, 2)=2, so array[1]=34/2=17 and temp=2/2=1
inner loop breaks because temp==1
d=9 i=0 temp=9 array[0]=7 ==> gcd(7,9)=1, so nothing changes
d=9 i=1 temp=9 array[1]=17 ==> gcd(17,9)=1, so nothing changes
d=9 i=2 temp=9 array[2]=33 ==> gcd(33,9)=3, so array[2]=11 and temp=3
d=9 i=3 ==> gcd(32,3)=1
d=9 i=4 ==> gcd(31,3)=1
d=9 i=5 temp=3 array[5]=30 ==> gcd(30,3)=3, so array[5]=10 and temp=1
inner loop breaks
When all is said and done the array ends up as
array[10] = { 1, 17, 11, 1, 31, 1, 29, 14, 3, 26 }
Multiply those numbers together and the answer is 183579396, and the entire calculation could be performed using 32-bit ints. In general, as long as the answer fits into 32-bits, the calculations can be done with 32-bits.
(my C is rusty, so this may not be super accurate)
Your factorial function is returning a uint64_t, but it's doing the computation with regular ints. If you changed f and i to uint64_t I think you'll avoid your current integer overflow issue.
However, you're still going to run into overflow pretty quickly (uint64_t will overflow around 21!). To avoid this you can be a bit smarter with the algorithm. With row=16 and position=3, you need 16! / (3! * 13!). You can cancel out most of the terms (16!/13! is just 14*15*16) and end up with 14*15*16 / (1*2*3). This'll let your program go a lot further than row 21.
When you are calculating the factorial, even though you are returning a 64-bit integer it won't make a difference if you are using regular int variables for your intermediate calculations. Change to this:
uint64_t factorial(uint64_t x)
{
uint64_t f = 1, i = x;
if (x == 0) {
return 1;
}
while (i != 1) {
f = f * i;
i = i - 1;
}
return f;
}
Also, think about how you can rearrange the equation so that you don't have to calculate really large intermediate values. For example you could rearrange to this:
element = ( factorial(row) / factorial(pos) ) / factorial(row - pos);
Then you won't be multiplying two factorials together and getting a really large number.
Also, when you compute factorial(row) / factorial(pos) you can eliminate terms that will be in both factorial(row) and factorial(pos), so you don't need to calculate the entire factorials.
This will work:
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
printf ("\n");
int n = 10;
int i;
int j;
int x[n];
for (i = 0; i < n; i++)
x[i] = 0;
for (i = 1; i <= n; i++)
{
for (j = n - 1; j >= 1; j--)
x[j] = x[j-1] + x[j];
x[0] = 1;
int s = n - i;
for (j = 0; j < s; j++)
printf (" ");
for (j = 0; j < n; j++)
{
if (x[j] != 0)
printf (" %3d", x[j]);
}
printf ("\n");
}
printf ("\n");
return 0;
}