How to print the b-th prime number coming after n? - c++

Question

I'm trying to write a c++ program which gets an integer n (n>=1 && n<=100000) from the user and puts the sum of its digits into b. The output needed is the b-th prime number coming after n. I'm an absolute beginner in programming so I don't know what's wrong with the for loop or any other code that it doesn't show the correct output. For example the 3rd prime number after 12 (1+2=3) is 19 but the loop counts the prime numbers from 2 instead of 12, so it prints 7 as result.
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
bool isPrime(int n)
{
if(n <= 1)
return false;
for(int i = 2; i <= (n/2); i++)
if(n % i == 0)
return false;
return true;
}
int main()
{
long int n;
int b = 0;
cin>>n;
while(n >= 1 && n <= 100000){
b += n % 10;
n /= 10;
}
for(int i = n, counter = b; counter <= 10; i++)
if(isPrime(i)){
counter++;
if(i > n)
cout<<counter<<"th prime number after n is : "<<i<<endl;
}
return 0;
}
So one of the possible solutions to my question, according to #Bob__ answer (and converting it to the code style I've used in the initial code) is as follows:
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
bool isPrime(long int number)
{
if(number <= 1)
return false;
for(int i = 2; i <= (number / 2); i++)
if(number % i == 0)
return false;
return true;
}
int sumOfDigits(long int number)
{
int sum = 0;
while(number >= 1 && number <= 100000)
{
sum += number % 10;
number /= 10;
}
return sum;
}
long int bthPrimeAfter(int counter, long int number)
{
while(counter)
{
++number;
if(isPrime(number))
--counter;
}
return number;
}
int main()
{
long int number;
cin>>number;
int const counter = sumOfDigits(number);
cout<<bthPrimeAfter(counter, number)<<"\n";
return 0;
}

Answer 1

As dratenik said in their comment:
You have destroyed the value in n to produce b in the while loop. When the for loop comes around, n keeps being zero.
That's a key point to understand, sometimes we need to make a copy of a variable. One way to do that is passing it to a function by value. The function argument will be a local copy which can be changed without affecting the original one.
As an example, the main function could be written like the following:
#include <iostream>
bool is_prime(long int number);
// ^^^^^^^^ So is `n` in the OP's `main`
int sum_of_digits(long int number);
// ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This is a local copy.
long int nth_prime_after(int counter, long int number);
int main()
{
long int number;
// The input validation (check if it's a number and if it's in the valid range,
// deal with errors) is left to the reader as an exercise.
std::cin >> number;
int const counter = sum_of_digits(number);
std::cout << nth_prime_after(counter, number) << '\n';
return 0;
}
The definition of sum_of_digits is straightforward.
int sum_of_digits(long int number)
{
int sum = 0;
while ( number ) // Stops when number is zero. The condition n <= 100000
{ // belongs to input validation, like n >= 0.
sum += number % 10;
number /= 10; // <- This changes only the local copy.
}
return sum;
}
About the last part (finding the nth prime after the chosen number), I'm not sure to understand what the asker is trying to do, but even if n had the correct value, for(int i = n, counter = b; counter <= 10; i++) would be just wrong. For starters, there's no reason for the condition count <= 10 or at least none that I can think of.
I'd write something like this:
long int nth_prime_after(int counter, long int number)
{
while ( counter )
{
++number;
if ( is_prime(number) )
{
--counter; // The primes aren't printed here, not even the nth.
}
}
return number; // Just return it, the printing is another function's
} // responsabilty.
A lot more could be said about the is_prime function and the overall (lack of) efficiency of this algorithm, but IMHO, it's beyond the scope of this answer.