Python can handle Very Large Numbers

by vegaseat on Aug 1st, 2005

Scientists and deficit spenders like to use Python because it can handle very large numbers. I decided to give it a test with factorials. Factorials reach astronomical levels rather quickly. In case you can't quite remember, the factorial of 12 is !12 = 1*2*3*4*5*6*7*8*9*10*11*12 = 479001600, that is 479 million and some change! After that languages like C++ start to fizzle quickly! At !16 we get past the nations debt. Python can handle that and more! I stopped at !69 only because the display started to wrap the line. The result has 98 digits in it, I thought I made my point anyway.

Python Code Snippet (Toggle Plain Text)

# check the numeric range of Python with huge factorials
# factorial(69) still checks out accurately! Has 98 digits in it!
# 171122452428141311372468338881272839092270544893520369393648040923257279754140647424000000000000000
# tested with Python24      vegaseat    01aug2005
 
def getFactorial(n):
    """returns the factorial of n"""
    if n == 0:
        return 1
    else:
        k = n * getFactorial(n-1)
        return k
 
for k in range(1, 70):
    print "factorial of", k,"=", getFactorial(k)

Comments on this Code Snippet

Permalink

Oct 8th, 2010

Re: Python can handle Very Large Numbers

I didn't know Python could handle such big numbers natively. Cool stuff, particularly for cryptography I'm sure. I hit a wall at 999.

Python Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
>>> getFactorial(999)
  File "<stdin>", line 5, in g
  File "<stdin>", line 5, in g
  ...
  File "<stdin>", line 5, in g
RuntimeError: maximum recursion depth exceeded
>>> getFactorial(999)
  File "<stdin>", line 5, in g
  File "<stdin>", line 5, in g
  ...
  File "<stdin>", line 5, in g
RuntimeError: maximum recursion depth exceeded

Try this definition instead. It seems to be getting the same results as yours, but is non-recursive.

Python Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
>>> def getFactorial(n):
...   r = 1
...   for x in range(n):
...     r = r * (n + 1)
...   return r
...
>>> getFactorial(100000)
(insert monster number here)L
>>> def getFactorial(n):
...   r = 1
...   for x in range(n):
...     r = r * (n + 1)
...   return r
...
>>> getFactorial(100000)
(insert monster number here)L

mlin

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1 posts
since Oct 2010

Permalink

Oct 8th, 2010

Re: Python can handle Very Large Numbers

i know this for a long time. lol

I think i had something x 10^500 or 10^5000 at one point.

ultimatebuster

Posting Whiz in Training

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250 posts
since Mar 2010

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