Why is prime number check getting wrong results for large numbers? - c

This small C script checks if a number is a prime... Unfortunately it doesn't fully work. I am aware of the inefficiency of the script (e.g. sqrt optimization), these are not the problem.
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
int n, m;
printf("Enter an integer, that will be checked:\n"); // Set 'n' from commandline
scanf("%d", &n); // Set 'n' from commandline
//n = 5; // To specify 'n' inside code.
for (m = n-1; m >= 1; m--) {
if (m == 1) {
printf("The entered integer IS a prime.\n");
break;
}
if (n % m == 0) {
printf("The entered integer IS NOT a prime.\n");
break;
}
}
return 0;
}
I tested the programm with a lot of numbers and it worked... Then I tried a bigger number (1231231231231236) which is clearly not a prime...
BUT: the program told me it was!?
What am I missing...?

The number "1231231231231236" is too big to fit in an "int" data type. Add a printf statement to show what number your program thinks you gave it, and if that's prime, your program works fine; else, you might have a problem that merits checking. Adding support for integers of arbitary size requires considerable extra effort.
The reason you are having this problem is that intrinsic data types like int have a fixed size - probably 32 bits, or 4 bytes, for int. Given that, variables of type int can only represent 2^32 unique values - about 4 billion. Even if you were using unsigned int (you're not), the int type couldn't be used to store numbers bigger than around 4 billion. Your number is several orders of magnitude larger than that and, as such, when you try to put your input into the int variable, something happens, but I can tell you what doesn't happen: it doesn't get assigned the value 1231231231231236.

Hard to know without more details, but if your ints are 32-bit, then the value you've passed is outside the allowable range, which will no doubt be represented as something other than the value you've passed. You may want to consider using unsigned int instead.

The given number is too large for integer in C. Probably it only accepted a part of it. Try Printing the value of n.

Related

why my answer is only partially accepted in a hackerearth practice problem

Problem:
You are provided an array A of size N that contains non-negative integers. Your task is to determine whether the number that is formed by selecting the last digit of all the N numbers is divisible by 10.
Note: View the sample explanation section for more clarification.
Input format
First line: A single integer N denoting the size of array Ai.
Second line: N space-separated integers.
Output format:
If the number is divisible by 10 , then print Yes . Otherwise, print No.
Constraints:
1<=N<=100000
0<=A[i]<=100000
i have used int, long int ,long long int as well for declaring N and 'm'.But the answer was again partially accepted.
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
long long int N,m,i;
scanf("%ld", &N);
long data[N];
for(auto i=0; i<N; i++) {
scanf("%ld", &data[i]);
}
// write your code here
// ans =
m=(data[0]%10);
for(i=1; i<N; i++) {
m=m*10;
m=(data[i]%10)+m;
}
if(m%10!=0 && m==0) {
printf("Yes");}
else{
printf("No");
}
return 0;
}
Try making a test suite, that is, several tests for which you know the answer. Run your program on each of the tests; compare the result with the correct answer.
When making your tests, try to hit also corner cases. What do I mean by corner cases? You have them in your problem statement:
1<=N<=100000
0<=A[i]<=100000
You should have at least one test with minimal and maximal N - you should test whether your program works for these extremes.
You should also have at least one test with minimal and maximal A[i].
Since each of them can be different, try varying them - make sure your program works on the case where some of the A[i] are large and some are small.
For each category, include tests for which the answer is Yes and No - to exclude the case where your algorithm always outputs e.g. Yes by mistake.
In general, you should try to make tests which challenge your program - try to prove that it has a bug, even if you believe it's correct.
This code overflows:
m=(data[0]%10);
for(i=1; i<N; i++) {
m=m*10;
m=(data[i]%10)+m;
}
For example, when N is 1000, and each of the input items A[i] (scanned into data[i]) ends in 9, this attempts to compute m = 99999…99999, which grossly overflows the capability of the long long m.
To determine whether the numeral formed by concatenating a sequence of digits is divisible by ten, you merely need to know whether the last digit is zero. The number is divisible by ten iff data[N-1] % 10 == 0. You do not even need to store these numbers in an array; simply use scanf to read but ignore N−1 numerals (e.g., scanf("%*d")), then read the last one and examine its last digit.
Also scanf("%ld", &N); wrongly uses %ld for the long long int N. It should be %lld, or N should be long int.
An integer number given in decimal is divisible by ten if, and only if, its least significant digit is zero.
If this expression from your problem:
the number that is formed by selecting the last digit of all the N numbers
means:
a number, whose decimal representation comes from concatenating the least significant digits of all input numbers
then the last (the least significant) digit of your number is the last digit of the last input number. And that digit being zero is equivalent to that last number being divisible by 10.
So all you need to do is read and ignore all input data except the last number, then test the last number for divisibility by 10:
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
long N, i, data;
scanf("%ld", &N);
for(i=0; i<N; i++)
scanf("%ld", &data); // scan all input data
// the last input number remains in data
if(data % 10 == 0) // test the last number
printf("Yes");
else
printf("No");
return 0;
}

SPOJ: PALIN - The Next Palindrome: wrong output

Here is the code for "The Next Palindrome" which I wrote in C:
#include<stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
int check(int); //function declaration
int t,i,k[1000],flag,n;
scanf("%d",&t); //test cases
for(i=0; i<t; i++)
scanf("%d",&k[i]); //numbers
for(i=0; i<t; i++)
{
if(k[i]<=9999999) //Number should be of 1000000 digits
{
k[i]++;
while(1)
{
flag=check(k[i]); //palindrome check
if(flag==1)
{
printf("%d\n",k[i]); //prints if it is palindrome and breaks
break;
}
else
k[i]++; //go to the next number
}
}
}
return 0;
}
int check(int n)
{
int rn=0;
int temp=n;
while(n!=0)
{
rn=rn*10+n%10; //reversing
n=n/10;
}
if(rn==temp) //number is palindrome
return 1;
else //number is not a palindrome
return 0;
}
It is a beginner level problem from SPOJ.
I tried to run this code on Codeblocks and it ran fluently.
In SPOJ, why is it showing wrong output?
In SPOJ, why is it showing wrong output?
This is nice solution and it works for small inputs, however it will not pass SPOJ for several reasons.
The requirement is:
A positive integer is called a palindrome if its representation in the
decimal system is the same when read from left to right and from right
to left. For a given positive integer K of not more than 1000000
digits, write the value of the smallest palindrome larger than K to
output. Numbers are always displayed without leading zeros.
Input:
The first line contains integer t, the number of test cases.
Integers K are given in the next t lines.
So which requirements are broken in your program?
1) Your assumption is that only 1000 numbers will be given for processing since
you declared
k[1000]
wrong, the number of lines is given in first line. It could be much more than 1000. You have to dynamically assign the storage for the numbers.
2)
The line
if(k[i]<=9999999)
assumes that input is less than 9999999
- wrong, the requirement says positive integer K of not more than 1000000 digits which imply that much larger numbers e.g. 199999991 also have to be accepted.
3) The statement
For a given positive integer K of not more than 1000000 digits
as well as warning
Warning: large Input/Output data, be careful with certain languages
leads us to conclusion that really big numbers should be expected!
The int type is not a proper vehicle for storing such big numbers. The int will fail to hold the value if the number is bigger than INT_MAX +2147483647. (Check C Library <limits.h>)
So, how to pass SPOJ challange?
Hint:
One of the possible solutions - operate on strings.

Bizarre situation - 100 digit number input asked

I need to make a program that can take numbers of up to 100 digits as input. No standard int datatype will be able to do that! I've never come across such a bizarre situation.
I don't get it at all. How am I supposed to solve this?
The question I'm working on is this:
A whole number will be given, and you have to make a program that will
determine whether it's an even or odd number.
Input Specification
In the first line, there will be an integer T denoting the number of
testcases. In the following T lines, a non-negative integer will be
given. The number can have a maximum of 100 digits.
Output Specification
For every whole number given, you will have to print whether it's odd
or even as output.
Can anyone guide me on how to solve the problem (if it is even possible to do so)?
The program will take a number as input and determine whether it's odd or even.
Read the input in a string (char [101]) and analyze only last digit to check whether number is odd or even. Rest of the digits are irrelevant for this task.
There is no standard numeric type guaranteed to hold that many digits. You need to store the value in a different way, e.g., as a string or other array. If you need to perform arithmetic on these numbers, you need to implement those operations for the types you use, or use some kind of arbitrary precision library.
(Tip: You also don't necessarily need the entire number for certain operations, e.g., you can tell whether it is even or odd by looking only at the last digit…)
The exercise is to determine whether a whole number of up to 100 digits is odd or even.
This does not require you to perform arbitrary arithmetic on the number, so if you need to handle numbers larger than the largest integer type on your system, you can treat them as a string of digits.
Whether it is even or odd only depends on the last digit.
To all those who took the time and effort to answer this question,
Thanks for the answers. And thanks for showing the way. I greatly appreciate the help!
The solution to the problem which I have coded is -
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main()
{
int T, i, j;
scanf("%d", &T);
for (i=1; i<=T; i++)
{
char N[101];
scanf("%s", N);
int k = strlen(N);
int p = N[k-1] - 48; //char to int conversion
if (p % 2 == 1)
{
printf("odd\n");
}
else
{
printf("even\n");
}
}
return 0;
}

Abort trap: 6 (Calculating a long number factorial)

I am following the following function to calculate factorials of big numbers link, and I would like to understand a bit more why some things are happening...
#include<stdio.h>
#define MAX 10000
void factorialof(int);
void multiply(int);
int length = 0;
int fact[MAX];
int main(){
int num;
int i;
printf("Enter any integer number : ");
scanf("%d",&num);
fact[0]=1;
factorialof(num);
printf("Factorial is : ");
for(i=length;i>=0;i--){
printf("%d",fact[i]);
}
return 0;
}
void factorialof(int num){
int i;
for(i=2;i<=num;i++){
multiply(i);
}
}
void multiply(int num){
long i,r=0;
int arr[MAX];
for(i=0;i<=length;i++){
arr[i]=fact[i];
}
for(i=0;i<=length;i++){
fact[i] = (arr[i]*num + r)%10;
r = (arr[i]*num + r)/10;
//printf("%d ",r);
}
if(r!=0){
while(r!=0){
fact[i]=r%10;
r= r/10;
i++;
}
}
length = i-1;
}
My questions are:
What is the real meaning of the MAX constant? What does it mean if it's bigger or smaller?
I have found out that if I have a MAX = 10000 (as in the example), I can calculate up to 3250! If I try with 3251! I get a 'Abort trap: 6' message. Why is that number? Where does it come from?
Which would be the difference if I compile this code for a 32-bit machine with the flag -m32? Would it run he same as in 64-bit?
Thanks!
As Scott Hunter points out, MAX is the maximum number of elements in the fact and arr arrays, which means it's the maximum number of digits that can occur in the result before the program runs out of space.
Note that the code only uses MAX in its array declarations. Nowhere does it use MAX to determine whether or not it's trying to read from or write to memory beyond the end of those arrays. This is a Bad Thing™. Your "Abort trap: 6" error is almost certainly occurring because trying to compute 3251! is doing exactly that: using a too-large index with arr and fact.
To see the number of digits required for a given factorial, you can increase MAX (say, to 20,000) and replace the existing printf calls in main with something like this:
printf("Factorial requires %d digits.\n", length + 1);
Note that I use length + 1 because length isn't the number of digits by itself: rather, it's the index of the array position in fact that contains the most-significant digit of the result. If I try to compute 3251!, the output is:
Factorial requires 10008 digits.
This is eight digits more than you have available in fact with the default MAX value of 10,000. Once the program logic goes beyond the allocated space in the array, its behavior is undefined. You happen to be seeing the error "Abort trap: 6."
Interestingly, here's the output when I try to compute 3250!:
Factorial requires 10005 digits.
That's still too many for the program to behave reliably when MAX is set to 10,000, so the fact that your program calculates 3250! successfully might be surprising, but that's the nature of undefined behavior: maybe your program will produce the correct result, maybe it will crash, maybe it will become self-aware and launch its missiles against the targets in Russia (because it knows that the Russian counterattack will eliminate its enemies over here). Coding like this is not a good idea. If your program requires more space than it has available in order to complete the calculation, it should stop and display an appropriate error message rather than trying to continue what it's doing.
MAX is the number of elements in fact and arr; trying to access an element with an index >= MAX would be bad.
Error messages are often specific to the environment you are using, which you have provided no details for.
They are not the same, but the differences (for example, the size of pointers) should not affect this code in any discernible way.

why runtime error on online judge?

I am unable to understand why i am getting runtime error with this code. Problem is every number >=6 can be represented as sum of two prime numbers.
My code is ...... Thanks in advance problem link is http://poj.org/problem?id=2262
#include "stdio.h"
#include "stdlib.h"
#define N 1000000
int main()
{
long int i,j,k;
long int *cp = malloc(1000000*sizeof(long int));
long int *isprime = malloc(1000000*sizeof(long int));
//long int *isprime;
long int num,flag;
//isprime = malloc(2*sizeof(long int));
for(i=0;i<N;i++)
{
isprime[i]=1;
}
j=0;
for(i=2;i<N;i++)
{
if(isprime[i])
{
cp[j] = i;
j++;
for(k=i*i;k<N;k+=i)
{
isprime[k] = 0;
}
}
}
//for(i=0;i<j;i++)
//{
// printf("%d ",cp[i]);
//}
//printf("\n");
while(1)
{
scanf("%ld",&num);
if(num==0) break;
flag = 0;
for(i=0;i<j&&num>cp[i];i++)
{
//printf("%d ",cp[i]);
if(isprime[num-cp[i]])
{
printf("%ld = %ld + %ld\n",num,cp[i],num-cp[i]);
flag = 1;
break;
}
}
if(flag==0)
{
printf("Goldbach's conjecture is wrong.\n");
}
}
free(cp);
free(isprime);
return 0;
}
Two possibilities immediately spring to mind. The first is that the user input may be failing if whatever test harness is being used does not provide any input. Without knowing more detail on the harness, this is a guess at best.
You could check that by hard-coding a value rather than accepting one from standard input.
The other possibility is the rather large memory allocations being done. It may be that you're in a constrained environment which doesn't allow that.
A simple test for that is to drop the value of N (and, by the way, use it rather than the multiple hardcoded 1000000 figures in your malloc calls). A better way would be to check the return value from malloc to ensure it's not NULL. That should be done anyway.
And, aside from that, you may want to check your Eratosthenes Sieve code. The first item that should be marked non-prime for the prime i is i + i rather than i * i as you have. I think it should be:
for (k = i + i; k < N; k += i)
The mathematical algorithm is actually okay since any multiple of N less than N * N will already have been marked non-prime by virtue of the fact it's a multiple of one of the primes previously checked.
Your problem lies with integer overflow. At the point where N becomes 46_349, N * N is 2_148_229_801 which, if you have a 32-bit two's complement integer (maximum value of 2_147_483_647), will wrap around to -2_146_737_495.
When that happens, the loop keeps going since that negative number is still less than your limit, but using it as an array index is, shall we say, inadvisable :-)
The reason it works with i + i is because your limit is well short of INT_MAX / 2 so no overflow happens there.
If you want to make sure that this won't be a problem if you get up near INT_MAX / 2, you can use something like:
for (k = i + i; (k < N) && (k > i); k += i)
That extra check on k should catch the wraparound event, provided your wrapping follows the "normal" behaviour - technically, I think it's undefined behaviour to wrap but most implementations simply wrap two positives back to a negative due to the two's complement nature. Be aware then that this is actually non-portable, but what that means in practice is that it will only work on 99.999% of machines out there :-)
But, if you're a stickler for portability, there are better ways to prevent overflow in the first place. I won't go into them here but to say they involve subtracting one of the terms being summed from MAX_INT and comparing it to the other term being summed.
The only way I can get this to give an error is if I enter a value greater than 1000000 or less than 1 to the scanf().
Like this:
ubuntu#amrith:/tmp$ ./x
183475666
Segmentation fault (core dumped)
ubuntu#amrith:/tmp$
But the reason for that should be obvious. Other than that, this code looks good.
Just trying to find what went wrong!
If the sizeof(long int) is 4 bytes for the OS that you are using, then it makes this problem.
In the code:
for(k=i*i;k<N;k+=i)
{
isprime[k] = 0;
}
Here, when you do k = i*i, for large values if i, the value of k goes beyond 4 bytesand get truncated which may result in negative numbers and so, the condition k<N is satisfied but with a negative number :). So you get a segmentation fault there.
It's good that you need only i+i, but if you need to increase the limit, take care of this problem.

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