Find all natural numbers which are multiplies of 3 and 5 recursively - ruby

Question

If we list all the natural numbers below 10 that are multiples of 3 or 5, we get 3, 5, 6 and 9. The sum of these multiples is 23. Find the sum of all the multiples of 3 or 5 below 1000.
def multiples_of(number)
number = number.to_f - 1.0
result = 0
if (number / 5.0) == 1 || (number / 3.0) == 1
return result = result + 5.0 + 3.0
elsif (number % 3).zero? || (number % 5).zero?
result += number
multiples_of(number-1)
else
multiples_of(number-1)
end
return result
end
p multiples_of(10.0)
My code is returning 9.0 rather than 23.0.

Answer 1

Using Core Methods to Select & Sum from a Range
It's not entirely clear what you really want to do here. This is clearly a homework assignment, so it's probably intended to get you to think in a certain way about whatever the lesson is. If that's the case, refer to your lesson plan or ask your instructor.
That said, if you restrict the set of possible input values to integers and use iteration rather than recursion, you can trivially solve for this using Array#select on an exclusive Range, and then calling Array#sum on the intermediate result. For example:
(1...10).select { |i| i.modulo(3).zero? || i.modulo(5).zero? }.sum
#=> 23
(1...1_000).select { |i| i.modulo(3).zero? || i.modulo(5).zero? }.sum
#=> 233168
Leave off the #sum if you want to see all the selected values. In addition, you can create your own custom validator by comparing your logic to an expected result. For example:
def valid_result? range_end, checksum
(1 ... range_end).select do |i|
i.modulo(3).zero? || i.modulo(5).zero?
end.sum.eql? checksum
end
valid_result? 10, 9
#=> false
valid_result? 10, 23
#=> true
valid_result? 1_000, 233_168
#=> true

Answer 2

There are a number of issues with your code. Most importantly, you're making recursive calls but you aren't combining their results in any way.
Let's step through what happens with an input of 10.
You assign number = number.to_f - 1.0 which will equal 9.
Then you reach the elsif (number % 3).zero? || (number % 5).zero? condition which is true, so you call result += number and multiples_of(number-1).
However, you're discarding the return value of the recursive call and call return result no matter what. So, your recursion doesn't have any impact on the return value. And for any input besides 3 or 5 you will always return input-1 as the return value. That's why you're getting 9.
Here's an implementation which works, for comparison:
def multiples_of(number)
number -= 1
return 0 if number.zero?
if number % 5 == 0 || number % 3 == 0
number + multiples_of(number)
else
multiples_of(number)
end
end
puts multiples_of(10)
# => 23
Note that I'm calling multiples_of(number) instead of multiples_of(number - 1) because you're already decrementing the input on the function's first line. You don't need to decrement twice - that would cause you to only process every other number e.g. 9,7,5,3
explanation
to step throgh the recursion a bit to help you understand it. Let's say we have an input of 4.
We first decrement the input so number=3. Then we hits the if number % 5 == 0 || number % 3 == 0 condition so we return number + multiples_of(number).
What does multiples_of(number) return? Now we have to evaluate the next recursive call. We decrement the number so now we have number=2. We hit the else block so now we'll return multiples_of(number).
We do the same thing with the next recursive call, with number=1. This multiples_of(1). We decrement the input so now we have number=0. This matches our base case so finally we're done with recursive calls and can work up the stack to figure out what our actual return value is.
For an input of 6 it would look like so:
multiples_of(6)
\
5 + multiples_of(5)
\
multiples_of(4)
\
3 + multiples_of(3)
\
multiples_of(2)
\
multiples_of(1)
\
multiples_of(0)
\
0

Answer 3

The desired result can be obtained from a closed-form expression. That is, no iteration is required.
Suppose we are given a positive integer n and wish to compute the sum of all positive numbers that are multiples of 3 that do not exceed n.
1*3 + 2*3 +...+ m*3 = 3*(1 + 2 +...+ m)
where
m = n/3
1 + 2 +...+ m is the sum of an algorithmic expression, given by:
m*(1+m)/2
We therefore can write:
def tot(x,n)
m = n/x
x*m*(1+m)/2
end
For example,
tot(3,9) #=> 18 (1*3 + 2*3 + 3*3)
tot(3,11) #=> 18
tot(3,12) #=> 30 (18 + 4*3)
tot(3,17) #=> 45 (30 + 5*3)
tot(5,9) #=> 5 (1*5)
tot(5,10) #=> 15 (5 + 2*5)
tot(5,14) #=> 15
tot(5,15) #=> 30 (15 + 3*5)
The sum of numbers no larger than n that are multiple of 3's and 5's is therefore given by the following:
def sum_of_multiples(n)
tot(3,n) + tot(5,n) - tot(15,n)
end
- tot(15,n) is needed because the first two terms double-count numbers that are multiples of 15.
sum_of_multiples(9) #=> 23 (3 + 6 + 9 + 5)
sum_of_multiples(10) #=> 33 (23 + 2*5)
sum_of_multiples(11) #=> 33
sum_of_multiples(12) #=> 45 (33 + 4*3)
sum_of_multiples(14) #=> 45
sum_of_multiples(15) #=> 60 (45 + 3*5)
sum_of_multiples(29) #=> 195
sum_of_multiples(30) #=> 225
sum_of_multiples(1_000) #=> 234168
sum_of_multiples(10_000) #=> 23341668
sum_of_multiples(100_000) #=> 2333416668
sum_of_multiples(1_000_000) #=> 233334166668