Please help me understand the logic behind this code - c++

I have been doing problems for while loop in c++ and i got stuck on this problem. Googled the answer to see what i had to do but now i dont understand the logic behind it and why it works.
Here is the problem:
A sequence consists of natural numbers and ends with 0. Determine the value of the second largest element in the sequence, that is, the element that will be the largest if you remove the largest element from the sequence.
Examples-> Input 1: 4, 4, 2, 3, 0 Output 1: 4 ; Input 2: 2 1 0 Output 2: 1
This is the code:
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main() {
int n, max, smax = 0;
cin >> n;
max = n;
while (n != 0) {
cin >> n;
if (n > max) {
smax = max;
max = n;
}
else if (n > smax) {
smax = n;
}
}
cout << smax;
return 0;
}
So, from my understanding max is n so the statement if n > max will never be True. Unless value for max resets with each loop and is 0, but then its always going to be true so there is no point for the second if statement.
Im sure i dont understand how the while loop works and i would like for someone to clear it up for me. Thanks in advance.

While loop repeats its body until the given condition become false. It's relatively easy to make an infinite while loop error in code, e.g.:
int i = 0;
while (i<10){
cout<<"something\n";
}
Please remember to put some operation that will break the loop in the body. This would work:
int i = 0;
while (i<10){
cout<<"something\n";
i++; //equivalent of i=i+1;
}
Try it yourself: https://www.onlinegdb.com/online_c++_compiler
This should help to understand the concept.
Your code actually makes no sense to me. You type some numbers and it changes them until you type 0, when it stops. It doesn't even show you the maximum value you typed. I highly recommend to learn something more clear and useful in C++.

Related

Find the largest palindrome made from the product of two 3-digit numbers in c++

my program seems correct but I don't know why it has a logic problem
int main()
{
int r,s=0;
for(int i=10000;i<=998001;i++)
{
while (i>0)
{
r=i%10;
s=s*10+r;
i=i/10;
}
cout<<s<<endl;
}
Your question and code don't seem to match Ali. You have told that you need the largest possible palindrome, but you are printing each and every reversed number. And your code has glitches too. I will list the mistakes and corresponding changes to be made:
using i as both the for loop counter variable and as well as the number you're reversing. This causes i to become 0 after every reversal and hence the for loop never ends. The fix for this... use another variable, say num, and equate it to i at the start of the loop. This ensures that i remains unchanged and for goes unfazed.
use long int instead of int. This avoids any anomalies and chances of junk numbers.
s(the sum variable) is initialized only at the start. Hence every time you calculate a new reversed number, it is adding s to its previous value. The fix: Initialize s to 0 at the start of for loop so that you get a fresh reversed for every i value.
You are not checking for any palindrome condition. You are just printing the reversed number. The fix: Hence check if the the number is a palindrome, i.e, if the number ,i.e., i is equal to the reversed number, i.e., s
I have attached the code below. I am currently printing the greatest palindrome in the range in which you were checking. In case you need all the palindromes, just uncomment the commented cout line.
CODE:
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
int r, s = 0;
long int num, max = 0;
for(long int i = 10000; i <= 998001; i++)
{
s = 0;
num = i;
while (num > 0)
{
r = num % 10;
s = s * 10 + r;
num = num / 10;
}
if(s == i) {
//cout<<s<<endl; //uncomment this line if you intend to display all palindromes
if(i > max)
max = i;
}
}
cout<<max<<endl;
}

While loop task in c++

I am a beginner in c++ and I am having problems with making this code work the way I want it to. The task is to write a program that multiplies all the natural numbers up to the loaded number n.
To make it print the correct result, I divided x by n (see code below). How can I make it print x and not have to divide it by n to get the correct answer?
#include<iostream>
using namespace std;
int main(){
int n,x=1;
int i=0;
cout<<"Enter a number bigger than 0:"<<endl;
cin>>n;
while(i<n){
i++;
x=i*x;
};
cout<<"The result is: "<<x/n<<endl;
return 0;
}
At very first a principle you best get used to as quickly as possible: Always check user input for correctness!
cin >> n;
if(cin && n > 0)
{
// valid
}
else
{
// appropriate error handling
}
Not sure, why do you need a while loop? A for loop sure is nicer in this case:
int x = 1;
for(int i = 2; i < n; ++i)
x *= i;
If you still want the while loop: Start with i == 2 (1 is neutral anyway) and increment afterwards:
i = 2;
while(i < n)
{
x *= i;
++i;
}
In case of n == 1, the loop (either variant) simply won't be entered and you are fine...
You already have two very good options, but here is an other one you might want to take a look at when you are at ease enough in programming :
unsigned factorial(unsigned value)
{
if (value <= 1)
{
return 1;
}
else
{
return value * factorial(value - 1);
}
}
It's a recursive function, which is kind of neat when used in proper moments (which could not be the case here unfortunately because the execution stack might get so big you fill your memory before you're done. But you can check it out to learn more about recursive functions)
When your memory is full, you then crash your app with what is called actually a stack overflow.
How can I make it so that in the last cout I can only put x and not have to divide x by n to get the correct answer?
It will be better to use a for loop.
// This stops when i reaches n.
// That means, n is not multiplied to the result when the loop breaks.
for (int i = 1; i < n; ++i )
{
x *= i;
}
cout << "The result is: " << x <<endl;

Modulo: The Purpose of An Undefined Integer

I am having some trouble understanding what a few lines mean in a code. I recently started learning C++ and picked up Bjarne Stroustrup's "Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++." There is a question in chapter 4 that was tripping me up, so I searched for a solution online to reference. Here is the code I ended up using in conjunction with the book:
#include "std_lib_facilities.h"
bool prime(vector<int> store, int number) {
for (int i = 0; i < store.size(); ++i)
if (number%store[i] == 0) return false; //line that I don't understand
return true;
}
int main() {
int max;
cout << "Please enter a maximum number you want checked for being prime or not.\n";
cin >> max;
vector<int> store;
for (int n = 2; n <= max; ++n)
if (prime(store, n)) store.push_back(n);
for (int n = 0; n < store.size(); ++n)
cout << store[n] << "\n";
keep_window_open();
return 0;
}
The objective of the code is to find all prime numbers below and equal to the user input, starting at 2. I understand everything that is going on in this code with the exception of one line (notated by the comment). What is the purpose of the int "number" on this line, and what mathematically is going on here? The aspect of it that is confusing me is "number" doesn't have a value, yet it is being divided by the value of the current element. If it equals zero, then theoretically the statement is false. Can someone please explain this to me? What does it have to do with finding prime numbers? I want to know what is happening at a basic level so that I may become a more efficient programmer and make my own solution. Thanks.
In the context of prime, store has prime numbers less than number so far.
number is a prime if and only if it's not divisible by any integers (beside 0 and 1) smaller than it
for (int n = 2; n <= max; ++n)
if (prime(store, n)) store.push_back(n);
Here the function is called repeatedly and the value of n is 2 at the beginning as
the for loop is iterating n starting from 2. This value of n is the value of number in the function body.
Hope that clears.
The aspect of it that is confusing me is "number" doesn't have a value
number does have a value: whatever value was passed in the call to prime(). In main(), prime() is called first with number=2, then number=3, ... up to number=max.
Other answers have addressed the mathematical reasoning behind the program.
If you want to understand how this program works - and inspecting the value of number during a call to prime(), as well as the call stack, is a great way to do that - I would suggest learning how to use a debugger such as gdb and poking around.

How do I write a loop function as a recursive function?

Well, I've been trying to rework this many times. Though, at one point I thought the longestSequence function would help, since it displays the longest hailstone sequence. Though, I can't seem to figure out how to find, or store the value it used to find that.If someone could explain how, I would appreciate it.
int longestSequence(int n)
{
int u = n;
if(u == 1)
{
return 1;
}
else
{
return max(hailstoneLength(u), longestSequence(u-1));
}
}
The part I'm having trouble with is my longest start sequence:
int hailLongestSeq(int n)
{
int k;
int longest = 0;
for(int j = 1; j <= n; j++)
{
if(hailstoneLength(j) > longest)
{
longest = hailstoneLength(j);
k = j;
}
}
return k;
}
I'm not sure how to make this into a recursion, I noticed for some recursions I saw people using for loops still, but I was sure we weren't supposed to use loops.
It may be a dumb question, but is there a formula to translating for loops to recursions, if anyone knows one?
The expected out put is like this:
The longest hailstone sequence starting with a number up to 10 has length 20.
The longest hailstone sequence starting with a number up to 10 begins with 9.
as 9's sequence has a length of 20 numbers, and is the longest from 1 to 10.
Yes every for loop can be translated to recursive call, obviously like this:
for (i=0; i<N; i++) {
body;
}
translate it to:
func(int i) {
if (i<N) { body; func(i+1) }
else return;
}
func(0);
This can be easily extended to any for loop computation (add parameters if needed, return value, etc).
You can add the local variables who's value you want to retain in the parameter signature of the function. I have tried to rewrite the code as recursive. Check and verify if this solves your problem.
int hailLongestSeq(int n, int j, int k, int longest)
{
if(j <= n)
{
if(hailstoneLength(j) > longest)
{
longest = hailstoneLength(j);
k = j;
}
k = hailLongestSeq(n, ++j, k, longest);
}
return k;
}
This may need a fix, however the logic remains the same, pass the variables as parameter to retain the value.

Prime numbers program

I'm currently trying out some questions just to practice my programming skills. ( Not taking it in school or anything yet, self taught ) I came across this problem which required me to read in a number from a given txt file. This number would be N. Now I'm suppose to find the Nth prime number for N <= 10 000. After I find it, I'm suppose to print it out to another txt file. Now for most parts of the question I'm able to understand and devise a method to get N. The problem is that I'm using an array to save previously found prime numbers so as to use them to check against future numbers. Even when my array was size 100, as long as the input integer was roughly < 15, the program crashes.
#include <cstdio>
#include <iostream>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <fstream>
using namespace std;
int main() {
ifstream trial;
trial.open("C:\\Users\\User\\Documents\\trial.txt");
int prime;
trial >> prime;
ofstream write;
write.open("C:\\Users\\User\\Documents\\answer.txt");
int num[100], b, c, e;
bool check;
b = 0;
switch (prime) {
case 1:
{
write << 2 << endl;
break;
}
case 2:
{
write << 3 << endl;
break;
}
case 3:
{
write << 5 << endl;
break;
}
case 4:
{
write << 7 << endl;
break;
}
default:
{
for (int a = 10; a <= 1000000; a++) {
check = false;
if (((a % 2) != 0) && ((a % 3) != 0) && ((a % 5) != 0) && ((a % 7) != 0)) // first filter
{
for (int d = 0; d <= b; d++) {
c = num[d];
if ((a % c) == 0) {
check = true; // second filter based on previous recorded primes in array
break;
}
}
if (!check) {
e = a;
if (b <= 100) {
num[b] = a;
}
b = b + 1;
}
}
if ((b) == (prime - 4)) {
write << e << endl;
break;
}
}
}
}
trial.close();
write.close();
return 0;
}
I did this entirely base on my dummies guide and myself so do forgive some code inefficiency and general newbie-ness of my algorithm.
Also for up to 15 it displays the prime numbers correctly.
Could anyone tell me how I should go about improving this current code? I'm thinking of using a txt file in place of the array. Is that possible? Any help is appreciated.
Since your question is about programming rather than math, I will try to keep my answer that way too.
The first glance of your code makes me wonder what on earth you are doing here... If you read the answers, you will realize that some of them didn't bother to understand your code, and some just dump your code to a debugger and see what's going on. Is it that we are that impatient? Or is it simply that your code is too difficult to understand for a relatively easy problem?
To improve your code, try ask yourself some questions:
What are a, b, c, etc? Wouldn't it better to give more meaningful names?
What exactly is your algorithm? Can you write down a clearly written paragraph in English about what you are doing (in an exact way)? Can you modify the paragraph into a series of steps that you can mentally carry out on any input and can be sure that it is correct?
Are all steps necessary? Can we combine or even eliminate some of them?
What are the steps that are easy to express in English but require, say, more than 10 lines in C/C++?
Does your list of steps have any structures? Loops? Big (probably repeated) chunks that can be put as a single step with sub-steps?
After you have going through the questions, you will probably have a clearly laid out pseudo-code that solves the problem, which is easy to explain and understand. After that you can implement your pseudo-code in C/C++, or, in fact, any general purpose language.
There are a two approaches to testing for primality you might want to consider:
The problem domain is small enough that just looping over the numbers until you find the Nth prime would probably be an acceptable solution and take less than a few milliseconds to complete. There are a number of simple optimizations you can make to this approach for example you only need to test to see if it's divisible by 2 once and then you only have to check against the odd numbers and you only have to check numbers less than or equal to the aquare root of the number being tested.
The Sieve of Eratosthenes is very effective and easy to implement and incredibly light on the math end of things.
As for why you code is crashing I suspect changing the line that reads
for( int d=0; d<=b; d++)
to
for( int d=0; d<b; d++)
will fix the problem because you are trying to read from a potentially uninitialized element of the array which probably contains garbage.
I haven't looked at your code, but your array must be large enough to contain all the values you will store in it. 100 certainly isn't going to be enough for most input for this problem.
E.g. this code..
int someArray[100];
someArray[150] = 10;
Writes to a location large than the array (150 > 100). This is known as a memory overwrite. Depending on what happened to be at that memory location your program may crash immediately, later, or never at all.
A good practice when using arrays is to assert in someway that the element you are writing to is within the bounds of the array. Or use an array-type class that performs this checking.
For your problem the easiest approach would be to use the STL vector class. While you must add elements (vector::push_back()) you can later access elements using the array operator []. Vector will also give you the best iterative performance.
Here's some sample code of adding the numbers 0-100 to a vector and then printing them. Note in the second loop we use the count of items stored in the vector.
#include <vector> // std::vector
...
const int MAX_ITEMS = 100;
std::vector<int> intVector;
intVector.reserve(MAX_ITEMS); // allocates all memory up-front
// add items
for (int i = 0; i < MAX_ITEMS; i++)
{
intVector.push_back(i); // this is how you add a value to a vector;
}
// print them
for (int i = 0; i < intVector.size(); i++)
{
int elem = intVector[i]; // this access the item at index 'i'
printf("element %d is %d\n", i, elem);
}
I'm trying to improve my functional programming at the moment so I just coded up the sieve quickly. I figure I'll post it here. If you're still learning, you might find it interesting, too.
#include <iostream>
#include <list>
#include <math.h>
#include <functional>
#include <algorithm>
using namespace std;
class is_multiple : public binary_function<int, int, bool>
{
public:
bool operator()(int value, int test) const
{
if(value == test) // do not remove the first value
return false;
else
return (value % test) == 0;
}
};
int main()
{
list<int> numbersToTest;
int input = 500;
// add all numbers to list
for(int x = 1; x < input; x++)
numbersToTest.push_back(x);
// starting at 2 go through the list and remove all multiples until you reach the squareroot
// of the last element in the list
for(list<int>::iterator itr = ++numbersToTest.begin(); *itr < sqrt((float) input); itr++)
{
int tmp = *itr;
numbersToTest.remove_if(bind2nd(is_multiple(), *itr));
itr = find(numbersToTest.begin(), numbersToTest.end(), tmp); //remove_if invalidates iterator
// so find it again. kind of ugly
}
// output primes
for(list<int>::iterator itr = numbersToTest.begin(); itr != --numbersToTest.end(); itr++)
cout << *itr << "\t";
system("PAUSE");
return 0;
}
Any advice on how to improve this would be welcome by the way.
Here is my code. When working on a big number, it's very slow!
It can calculate all prime numbers with in the number you input!
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <cmath>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
int m;
int n=0;
char ch;
fstream fp;
cout<<"What prime numbers do you want get within? ";
if((cin>>m)==0)
{
cout<<"Bad input! Please try again!\n";
return 1;
}
if(m<2)
{
cout<<"There are no prime numbers within "<<m<<endl;
return 0;
}
else if(m==2)
{
fp.open("prime.txt",ios::in|ios::out|ios::trunc);//create a file can be writen and read. If the file exist, it will be overwriten.
fp<<"There are only 1 prime number within 2.\n";
fp<<"2\n";
fp.close();
cout<<"Congratulations! It has worked out!\n";
return 0;
}
else
{
int j;
int sq;
fp.open("prime.txt",ios::in|ios::out|ios::trunc);
fp<<"2\t\t";
n++;
for(int i=3;i<=m;i+=2)
{
sq=static_cast<int>(sqrt(i))+1;
fp.seekg(0,ios::beg);
fp>>j;
for(;j<sq;)
{
if(i%j==0)
{
break;
}
else
{
if((fp>>j)==NULL)
{
j=3;
}
}
}
if(j>=sq)
{
fp.seekg(0,ios::end);
fp<<i<<"\t\t";
n++;
if(n%4==0)
fp<<'\n';
}
}
fp.seekg(0,ios::end);
fp<<"\nThere are "<<n<<" prime number within "<<m<<".\n";
fp.close();
cout<<"Congratulations! It has worked out!\n";
return 0;
}
}
For one, you'd have less code (which is always a good thing!) if you didn't have special cases for 3, 5 and 7.
Also, you can avoid the special case for 2 if you just set num[b] = 2 and only test for divisibility by things in your array.
It looks like as you go around the main for() loop, the value of b increases.
Then, this results in a crash because you access memory off the end of your array:
for (int d = 0; d <= b; d++) {
c = num[d];
I think you need to get the algorithm clearer in your head and then approach the code again.
Running your code through a debugger, I've found that it crashes with a floating point exception at "if ((a % c) == 0)". The reason for this is that you haven't initialized anything in num, so you're doing "a % 0".
From what I know, in C/C++ int is a 16bit type so you cannot fit 1 million in it (limit is 2^16=32k). Try and declare "a" as long
I think the C standard says that int is at least as large as short and at most as large as long.
In practice int is 4 bytes, so it can hold numbers between -2^31 and 2^31-1.
Since this is for pedagogical purposes, I would suggest implementing the Sieve of Eratosthenes.
This should also be of interest to you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primality_test
for(int currentInt=2; currentInt<=1000000; currentInt++)
{check = false; // Basically the idea for this for loop is to run checks against integers. This is the main for loop in this program. I re initialize check to false ( check is a bool declared above this. )
for( int arrayPrime=0; arrayPrime<currentPrime; arrayPrime++) // This for loop is used for checking the currentInt against previously found primes which are stored in the num array.
{ c=num[arrayPrime];
if ((currentInt%c)==0) { check = true;// second filter based on previous recorded primes in array
break;} // this is the check. I check the number against every stored value in the num array. If it's divisible by any of them, then bool check is set to true.
if ( currentInt == 2)
{ check = false; } // since i preset num[0] = 2 i make an exception for the number 2.
if (!check)
{
e=a;
if(currentPrime <= 100){
num[currentPrime]= currentInt;} // This if uses check to see if the currentInt is a prime.
currentPrime = currentPrime+1;} // increases the value of currentPrime ( previously b ) by one if !check.
if(currentPrime==prime)
{
write<<e<<endl;
break;} // if currentPrime == prime then write the currentInt into a txt file and break loop, ending the program.
Thanks for the advice polythinker =)
#include <cstdio>
#include <iostream>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <fstream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
ifstream trial;
trial.open("C:\\Users\\User\\Documents\\trial.txt");
int prime, e;
trial>>prime;
ofstream write;
write.open("C:\\Users\\User\\Documents\\answer.txt");
int num[10000], currentPrime, c, primePrint;
bool check;
currentPrime=0;
num[currentPrime] = 2;
currentPrime=1;
for(int currentInt=2; currentInt<=1000000; currentInt++)
{check = false;
for( int arrayPrime=0; arrayPrime<currentPrime; arrayPrime++)
{ c=num[arrayPrime];
if ((currentInt%c)==0) { check = true;// second filter based on previous recorded primes in array
break;}
}
if (!check)
{ e=currentInt;
if( currentInt!= 2 ) {
num[currentPrime]= currentInt;}
currentPrime = currentPrime+1;}
if(currentPrime==prime)
{
write<<e<<endl;
break;}
}
trial.close();
write.close();
return 0;
}
This is the finalized version base on my original code. It works perfectly and if you want to increase the range of prime numbers simply increase the array number. Thanks for the help =)
Since you will need larger prime number values for later questions, I suggest you follow dreeves advice, and do a sieve. It is a very useful arrow to have in your quiver.