Digits after decimal points in printing outputs - c++11

I need to do the following computations.
sqrt(abs(pow(a, 2) - pow(b, 2)))
sqrt(abs(pow(a, 2) + pow(b, 2)))
Let a = 4 and b = 5 so the outputs are 3 and 6.40312. Now if I want to print like 3.0 and other one kept as same 6.40312 how can I do that? If I use setprecision() and fixed the outputs are 3.0000and 6.40312. How can I have varible lenght decimal points results with cout?

Related

Fastest way to determine how many times a number can be sutracted in a total number, while each subtraction result is greater then another number

Is it possible to solve the following problem without a cycle? By using a math formula. It could make my app much faster.
How many times can 43920 be subtracted in 189503, while each subtraction result is greater than 79920
Example:
189503 > 79920 so 189503-43920=145583 (1 time)
145583 > 79920 so 145583-43920=101663 (2 times)
101663 > 79920 so 101663-43920=57743 (3 times)
57743 < 43920 so it means it ran 3 times
This would be the same as 189503-(43920*3) = 57743 or 189503 % (43920*3)
I don't know if i wrote my question well, maybe you can help
Yes. It resumes to: Math.floor((189503 - 79920) / 43920). Which equals 2.
First subtract 79920 to keep only the distance that you really care.
Divide the remainder by 43920. This will result in the "exact" number of times it can be subtracted.
Finally, apply a floor function to get an integer number.
Let x = the number of times you need to subtract by
189503 - (43920 * x) = 79920
189503 = 79920 + (43920 * x)
189503 - 79920 = 43920x
x = (189503 - 79920) / 43920
x = 2.49505919854
Given that you can not really subtract something any other than a whole number (integer) of times the answer is 2.

Increase efficiency for following algorithm

Problem:-
input = n
output :-
1 2 3.......n [first row]
2n+1 2n+2 2n+3....3n [second row]
3n+1 3n+2 3n+3...4n [second last row]
n+1 n+2 n+3....2n [last row]
In the problem we have to print a square such that we have 'n' numbers of rows in our square and in every row we have 'n' numbers. We prepare rows from numbers from 1 to square(n) in such way we fill numbers for first row, then last row, second row, second last row and so on.....
for e.g. if n = 4
We start from 1 print upto 4 then print a newline, so our first row is:-
1 2 3 4
Then our last row comes in continuation
5 6 7 8
then our second row will be
9 10 11 12
few examples:
input = 1
output = 1
input = 2
output = 1 2
3 4
input = 3
output = 1 2 3
7 8 9
4 5 6
My Code:
n = int(input().strip())
lines = [i for i in range (1, n + 1)]
line_order1 = []
line_order2 = []
#Reordering lines so we know the staring element of our method
for i in lines:
if(i % 2 == 1):
line_order1.append(i)
else:
line_order2.append(i)
print(line_order1)
print(line_order2)
// Getting the desired order of lines
line_order2.reverse()
line_order1.extend(line_order2)
print(line_order1)
// Now printing the desired square
for l in line_order1:
for i in range (1, n+1):
k = n * (l - 1)
print(k + i, end = " ")
print("\n")
Is there a better way to do this in terms of execution time?
While I see a few minor places you can improve your code, the performance is unlikely to be much better (my suggestions below might not make any performance difference at all). Your code will take O(n**2) time, which is the best you can do, since you need to print out that many numbers to form your square. Even if you combine some of your longer, more verbose steps into more compact versions, they'll can only possibly be better by a constant factor.
My first suggestion is to number the lines from 0 to n-1 instead of from 1 to n. This will save you some effort when you have to calculate how what multiple of n to include in the values for the row. Currently you've got an awkward l - 1 in your calculation that you could skip if you just used zero-indexed numbers for the rows. (Also l is a terrible variable name, since it looks like the digit 1 (one) in some fonts.)
My next suggestion is to simplify your code that builds the order. You don't need three lists, you can do the whole thing with one list that you feed two range objects, each counting up or down by two.
line_order = list(range(0, n, 2)) # count up by twos
line_order.extend(range(n - 1 - n%2, 0, -2)) # count down starting at either n-1 or n-2
Or, if you're willing to use a standard library module, you could import itertools and then use:
line_order = itertools.chain(range(0, n, 2), range(n - 1 - n%2, 0, -2))
The itertools.chain function returns an iterator that yields values from each of its iterable arguments as if they were concatenated together, without making any copies of the data or using significant extra memory. The difference is not likely to be a much here (since the maximum n you can usefully print out is fairly small), but if you were doing something different with the result of this algorithm and n was in the billions it would be very nice to avoid filling a list with that many values.
My last suggestion is to use a range again to generate all the numbers in each row directly, rather than explicitly looping from 1 to n and adding k each time.
for row_num in line_order:
print(*range(n * row_num + 1, n * (rownum + 1) + 1))
You can compute the start and end points with the multiples of n already included, rather than needing to do that in a separate step for each one. You certainly didn't need to be recomputing k as often as you were before. You can pass all the values from the range to print in one go using iterable unpacking syntax (*args).
Note though that unpacking the range that way is sort of the reverse of the previous suggestion regarding itertools.chain. If n is large, using a loop over the range would be more memory efficient, since you won't need all n values to exist in memory at a the same time. Here's what that would look like:
for line_num in line_order:
for value in range(n * row_num + 1, n * (rownum + 1) + 1):
print(value, end=" ")
print()

Algorithm fails for coin change

I am trying to build my last piece of homework from the scala course from coursera however my algorithm seems to fail. I cannot understand however why it fails and why it returns 0.
NOTE I am not asking for a solution to this problem. I want an explanation regarding what is happening with the code and why it fails.
def countChange(money: Int, coins: List[Int]): Int = {
def cc(amount: Int, list: List[Int]): Int = {
println(amount, list);
if (amount == 0) 1
if (amount < 0 || list.isEmpty) 0
else cc(amount - list.head, list) + cc(amount, list.tail)
}
cc(money, coins)
}
The logic was that the number of ways that you can give change to a given amount is equal to the number of ways you can give change using the first type of coin + the number of ways that you can give change to the next type of coin. This resulted in a recursive function which counted all the ways. This was my logic and this was what I tried to build however this is what it returns:
(10,List(2, 3, 5))
(8,List(2, 3, 5))
(6,List(2, 3, 5))
(4,List(2, 3, 5))
(2,List(2, 3, 5))
(0,List(2, 3, 5))
(-2,List(2, 3, 5))
(0,List(3, 5))
(-3,List(3, 5))
(0,List(5))
(-5,List(5))
(0,List())
(2,List(3, 5))
(-1,List(3, 5))
(2,List(5))
(-3,List(5))
(2,List())
(4,List(3, 5))
(1,List(3, 5))
(-2,List(3, 5))
(1,List(5))
(-4,List(5))
(1,List())
(4,List(5))
(-1,List(5))
(4,List())
(6,List(3, 5))
(3,List(3, 5))
(0,List(3, 5))
(-3,List(3, 5))
(0,List(5))
(-5,List(5))
(0,List())
(3,List(5))
(-2,List(5))
(3,List())
(6,List(5))
(1,List(5))
(-4,List(5))
(1,List())
(6,List())
(8,List(3, 5))
(5,List(3, 5))
(2,List(3, 5))
(-1,List(3, 5))
(2,List(5))
(-3,List(5))
(2,List())
(5,List(5))
(0,List(5))
(-5,List(5))
(0,List())
(5,List())
(8,List(5))
(3,List(5))
(-2,List(5))
(3,List())
(8,List())
(10,List(3, 5))
(7,List(3, 5))
(4,List(3, 5))
(1,List(3, 5))
(-2,List(3, 5))
(1,List(5))
(-4,List(5))
(1,List())
(4,List(5))
(-1,List(5))
(4,List())
(7,List(5))
(2,List(5))
(-3,List(5))
(2,List())
(7,List())
(10,List(5))
(5,List(5))
(0,List(5))
(-5,List(5))
(0,List())
(5,List())
(10,List())
0
As you can see it returns 0 even though the steps that it takes as it can be seen from the printed calls seem to be exactly what my logic tried to achieve.
This is the call of the function in the main function:
println ("" + countChange(10,List(2,3,5)))
Please Do not give me baked code which I can copy and paste. I want to know what is wrong with my logic.
You are missing an else:
if (amount == 0) 1 // This value is thrown away
if (amount < 0 || list.isEmpty) 0
else cc(amount - list.head, list) + cc(amount, list.tail)
Just add it before the second if and you'll be okay.
(In case it isn't clear, only the result from the last if/else is returned, so in
if (a) 1
if (b) 2
if (c) 3
else 4
only the last two lines will matter. If you want to choose one of those options,
if (a) 1
else if (b) 2
else if (c) 3
else 4
is what you need.)
Your bug is in the recursive portion of the code:
cc(amount -list.head, list) + cc(amount, list.tail)
If you look at the first part, you're passing the entire list again without removing the head. What that means is that the only way you'll ever get an answer is if the amount is exactly divisible by the coin at the head position of the current list.

Google Code Jam 2008: Round 1A Question 3

At Google Code Jam 2008 round 1A, there is problem:
Calculate last three digits before the
decimal point for the number
(3+sqrt(5))^n
n can be big number up to 1000000.
For example: if n = 2 then (3+sqrt(5))^2 = 27.4164079... answer is 027.
For n = 3: (3+sqrt(5))^3 = 3935.73982... answer is 935.
One of the solution is to create matrix M 2x2 : [[0, 1], [-4, 6]] than calculate matrix P = M^n, Where calculation preformed by modulo 1000.
and the result is (6*P[0,0] + 28*P[0,1] - 1) mod 1000.
Who can explain me this solution?
I'll present a method to solve this problem without even understanding the solution.
Assuming that you are familiar with the fibonacci numbers:
ghci> let fib = 0 : 1 : zipWith (+) fib (tail fib)
ghci> take 16 fib
[0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89,144,233,377,610]
And are also familiar with its closed form expression:
ghci> let calcFib i = round (((1 + sqrt 5) / 2) ^ i / sqrt 5)
ghci> map calcFib [0..15]
[0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89,144,233,377,610]
And you notice the similarity of ((1 + sqrt 5) / 2)n and (3 + sqrt 5)n.
From here one can guess that there is probably a series similar to fibonacci to calculate this.
But what series? So you calculate the first few items:
ghci> let calcThing i = floor ((3 + sqrt 5) ^ i)
ghci> map calcThing [0..5]
[1,5,27,143,751,3935]
Guessing that the formula is of the form:
thingn = a*thingn-1 + b*thingn-2
We have:
27 = a*5 + b*1
143 = a*27 + b*5
We solve the linear equations set and get:
thingn = 4*thingn-1 + 7*thingn-2 (a = 4, b = 7)
We check:
ghci> let thing = 1 : 5 : zipWith (+) (map (* 4) (tail thing)) (map (* 7) thing)
ghci> take 10 thing
[1,5,27,143,761,4045,21507,114343,607921,3232085]
ghci> map calcThing [0..9]
[1,5,27,143,751,3935,20607,107903,564991,2958335]
Then we find out that sadly this does not compute our function. But then we get cheered by the fact that it gets the right-most digit right. Not understanding why, but encouraged by this fact, we try to something similar. To find the parameters for a modified formula:
thingn = a*thingn-1 + b*thingn-2 + c
We then arrive at:
thingn = 6*thingn-1 - 4*thingn-2 + 1
We check it:
ghci> let thing =
1 : 5 : map (+1) (zipWith (+)
(map (*6) (tail thing))
(map (* negate 4) thing))
ghci> take 16 thing == map calcThing [0..15]
True
Just to give an answer to a very old question:
Thanks to yairchu i've got the idea to reread the prove of Binet's formula on the wikipedia page. It's there not really that clear, but we can work with it.
We see on the wikipedia page there is a closed form with 'computation by rounding': Fn = ⌊φ/√5⌋n.
If we could replace the φ/√5 with 3 + √5 (call the latter x). We could compute the floor of xn fairly easily, especially mod 1000, by finding the nth term in our freshly constructed sequence (this is the analogon of F (later we will call this analogon U)).
What sequence are we looking for? Well, we'll try following the prove for the Binet's formula. We need a quadratic equation with x as a root. Let's say x2 = 6 x-4 this one has roots x and y := 3 - √5. The handy part is now:
Define Un (for every a and b) such:
Un = a xn + b yn
by definition of x and y you can see that
Un = 6 Un-1 - 4 Un-2
Now we can choose a and b freely. We need Un to be integers so I propose choosing a=b=1. Now is U0 = 2, U1 = 6, U2 = 28...
We still need to get our 'computation by rounding'. You can see that yn < 1 for every n (because y ≅ 0.76 < 1) so Un = xn + yn = ⌈xn⌉.
If we can compute Un we can find ⌊xn⌋, just subtract 1.
We could compute Un by it's recursive formula but that would require O(n) computation time. We can do better!
For computing such a recursive formula we can use matrices:
⌈ 0 1⌉ ⌈ U(n-1) ⌉ ⌈ U(n) ⌉
⌊-4 6⌋ ⌊ U(n) ⌋ = ⌊U(n+1)⌋
Call this matrix M. Now does M*(U(1), U(2)) compute (U(2), U(3)).
Now we can compute P = Mn-1 (notice that I use one less than n, you can see that this is right if you test the small cases: n=0, n=1, n=2) P*(6,28) gives us now the nth and (n+1)th term of our sequence so:
(P*(6,28))0 - 1 = ⌊xn⌋
Now we can take everything mod 1000 (this is simplifying the calculations (a lot)) and we get the desired result in computation time O(log(n)) (or even better with the computational wonders of powers of matrices (over a cyclic finite field)). This explains the very weird looking solution, I guess.
I don't know how to explain that, but the auther of the problem have compose this analysis.

Code Golf: Leibniz formula for Pi

Locked. This question and its answers are locked because the question is off-topic but has historical significance. It is not currently accepting new answers or interactions.
I recently posted one of my favourite interview whiteboard coding questions in "What's your more controversial programming opinion", which is to write a function that computes Pi using the Leibniz formula.
It can be approached in a number of different ways, and the exit condition takes a bit of thought, so I thought it might make an interesting code golf question. Shortest code wins!
Given that Pi can be estimated using the function 4 * (1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + ...) with more terms giving greater accuracy, write a function that calculates Pi to within 0.00001.
Edit: 3 Jan 2008
As suggested in the comments I changed the exit condition to be within 0.00001 as that's what I really meant (an accuracy 5 decimal places is much harder due to rounding and so I wouldn't want to ask that in an interview, whereas within 0.00001 is an easier to understand and implement exit condition).
Also, to answer the comments, I guess my intention was that the solution should compute the number of iterations, or check when it had done enough, but there's nothing to prevent you from pre-computing the number of iterations and using that number. I really asked the question out of interest to see what people would come up with.
J, 14 chars
4*-/%>:+:i.1e6
Explanation
1e6 is number 1 followed by 6 zeroes (1000000).
i.y generates the first y non negative numbers.
+: is a function that doubles each element in the list argument.
>: is a function that increments by one each element in the list argument.
So, the expression >:+:i.1e6 generates the first one million odd numbers:
1 3 5 7 ...
% is the reciprocal operator (numerator "1" can be omitted).
-/ does an alternate sum of each element in the list argument.
So, the expression -/%>:+:i.1e6 generates the alternate sum of the reciprocals of the first one million odd numbers:
1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + ...
4* is multiplication by four. If you multiply by four the previous sum, you have π.
That's it! J is a powerful language for mathematics.
Edit: since generating 9! (362880) terms for the alternate sum is sufficient to have 5 decimal digit accuracy, and since the Leibniz formula can be written also this way:
4 - 4/3 + 4/5 - 4/7 + ...
...you can write a shorter, 12 chars version of the program:
-/4%>:+:i.9!
Language: Brainfuck, Char count: 51/59
Does this count? =]
Because there are no floating-point numbers in Brainfuck, it was pretty difficult to get the divisions working properly. Grr.
Without newline (51):
+++++++[>+++++++<-]>++.-----.+++.+++.---.++++.++++.
With newline (59):
+++++++[>+++++++>+<<-]>++.-----.+++.+++.---.++++.++++.>+++.
Perl
26 chars
26 just the function, 27 to compute, 31 to print. From the comments to this answer.
sub _{$-++<1e6&&4/$-++-&_} # just the sub
sub _{$-++<1e6&&4/$-++-&_}_ # compute
sub _{$-++<1e6&&4/$-++-&_}say _ # print
28 chars
28 just computing, 34 to print. From the comments. Note that this version cannot use 'say'.
$.=.5;$\=2/$.++-$\for 1..1e6 # no print
$.=.5;$\=2/$.++-$\for$...1e6;print # do print, with bonus obfuscation
36 chars
36 just computing, 42 to print. Hudson's take at dreeves's rearrangement, from the comments.
$/++;$\+=8/$//($/+2),$/+=4for$/..1e6
$/++;$\+=8/$//($/+2),$/+=4for$/..1e6;print
About the iteration count: as far as my math memories go, 400000 is provably enough to be accurate to 0.00001. But a million (or as low as 8e5) actually makes the decimal expansion actually match 5 fractional places, and it's the same character count so I kept that.
Ruby, 33 characters
(0..1e6).inject{|a,b|2/(0.5-b)-a}
Another C# version:
(60 characters)
4*Enumerable.Range(0, 500000).Sum(x => Math.Pow(-1, x)/(2*x + 1)); // = 3,14159
52 chars in Python:
print 4*sum(((-1.)**i/(2*i+1)for i in xrange(5**8)))
(51 dropping the 'x' from xrange.)
36 chars in Octave (or Matlab):
l=0:5^8;disp((-1).^l*(4./(2.*l+1))')
(execute "format long;" to show all the significant digits.) Omitting 'disp' we reach 30 chars:
octave:5> l=0:5^8;(-1).^l*(4./(2.*l+1))'
ans = 3.14159009359631
Oracle SQL 73 chars
select -4*sum(power(-1,level)/(level*2-1)) from dual connect by level<1e6
Language: C, Char count: 71
float p;main(i){for(i=1;1E6/i>5;i+=2)p-=(i%4-2)*4./i;printf("%g\n",p);}
Language: C99, Char count: 97 (including required newline)
#include <stdio.h>
float p;int main(){for(int i=1;1E6/i>5;i+=2)p-=(i%4-2)*4./i;printf("%g\n",p);}
I should note that the above versions (which are the same) keep track of whether an extra iteration would affect the result at all. Thus, it performs a minimum number of operations. To add more digits, replace 1E6 with 1E(num_digits+1) or 4E5 with 4E(num_digits) (depending on the version). For the full programs, %g may need to be replaced. float may need to be changed to double as well.
Language: C, Char count: 67 (see notes)
double p,i=1;main(){for(;i<1E6;i+=4)p+=8/i/(i+2);printf("%g\n",p);}
This version uses a modified version of posted algorithm, as used by some other answers. Also, it is not as clean/efficient as the first two solutions, as it forces 100 000 iterations instead of detecting when iterations become meaningless.
Language: C, Char count: 24 (cheating)
main(){puts("3.14159");}
Doesn't work with digit counts > 6, though.
Haskell
I got it down to 34 characters:
foldl subtract 4$map(4/)[3,5..9^6]
This expression yields 3.141596416935556 when evaluated.
Edit: here's a somewhat shorter version (at 33 characters) that uses foldl1 instead of foldl:
foldl1 subtract$map(4/)[1,3..9^6]
Edit 2: 9^6 instead of 10^6. One has to be economical ;)
Edit 3: Replaced with foldl' and foldl1' with foldl and foldl1 respectively—as a result of Edit 2, it no longer overflows. Thanks to ShreevatsaR for noticing this.
23 chars in MATLAB:
a=1e6;sum(4./(1-a:4:a))
F#:
Attempt #1:
let pi = 3.14159
Cheating? No, its winning with style!
Attempt #2:
let pi =
seq { 0 .. 100 }
|> Seq.map (fun x -> float x)
|> Seq.fold (fun x y -> x + (Math.Pow(-1.0, y)/(2.0 * y + 1.0))) 0.0
|> (fun x -> x * 4.0)
Its not as compact as it could possibly get, but pretty idiomatic F#.
common lisp, 55 chars.
(loop for i from 1 upto 4e5 by 4 sum (/ 8d0 i (+ i 2)))
Mathematica, 27 chars (arguably as low as 26, or as high as 33)
NSum[8/i/(i+2),{i,1,9^9,4}]
If you remove the initial "N" then it returns the answer as a (huge) fraction.
If it's cheating that Mathematica doesn't need a print statement to output its result then prepend "Print#" for a total of 33 chars.
NB:
If it's cheating to hardcode the number of terms, then I don't think any answer has yet gotten this right. Checking when the current term is below some threshold is no better than hardcoding the number of terms. Just because the current term is only changing the 6th or 7th digit doesn't mean that the sum of enough subsequent terms won't change the 5th digit.
Using the formula for the error term in an alternating series (and thus the necessary number of iterations to achieve the desired accuracy is not hard coded into the program):
public static void Main(string[] args) {
double tolerance = 0.000001;
double piApproximation = LeibnizPi(tolerance);
Console.WriteLine(piApproximation);
}
private static double LeibnizPi(double tolerance) {
double quarterPiApproximation = 0;
int index = 1;
double term;
int sign = 1;
do {
term = 1.0 / (2 * index - 1);
quarterPiApproximation += ((double)sign) * term;
index++;
sign = -sign;
} while (term > tolerance);
return 4 * quarterPiApproximation;
}
C#:
public static double Pi()
{
double pi = 0;
double sign = 1;
for (int i = 1; i < 500002; i += 2)
{
pi += sign / i;
sign = -sign;
}
return 4 * pi;
}
Perl :
$i+=($_&1?4:-4)/($_*2-1)for 1..1e6;print$i
for a total of 42 chars.
Ruby, 41 chars (using irb):
s=0;(3..3e6).step(4){|i|s+=8.0/i/(i-2)};s
Or this slightly longer, non-irb version:
s=0;(3..3e6).step(4){|i|s+=8.0/i/(i-2)};p s
This is a modified Leibniz:
Combine pairs of terms. This gives you 2/3 + 2/35 + 2/99 + ...
Pi becomes 8 * (1/(1 * 3) + 1/(5 * 7) + 1/(9 * 11) + ...)
F# (Interactive Mode) (59 Chars)
{0.0..1E6}|>Seq.fold(fun a x->a+ -1.**x/(2.*x+1.))0.|>(*)4.
(Yields a warning but omits the casts)
Here's a solution in MUMPS.
pi(N)
N X,I
S X=1 F I=3:4:N-2 S X=X-(1/I)+(1/(I+2))
Q 4*X
Parameter N indicates how many repeated fractions to use. That is, if you pass in 5 it will evaluate 4 * (1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + 1/9 - 1/11)
Some empirical testing showed that N=272241 is the lowest value that gives a correct value of 3.14159 when truncated to 5 decimal points. You have to go to N=852365 to get a value that rounds to 3.14159.
C# using iterator block:
static IEnumerable<double> Pi()
{
double i = 4, j = 1, k = 4;
for (;;)
{
yield return k;
k += (i *= -1) / (j += 2);
}
}
For the record, this Scheme implementation has 95 characters ignoring unnecessary whitespace.
(define (f)
(define (p a b)
(if (> a b)
0
(+ (/ 1.0 (* a (+ a 2))) (p (+ a 4) b))))
(* 8 (p 1 1e6)))
Javascript:
a=0,b=-1,d=-4,c=1e6;while(c--)a+=(d=-d)/(b+=2)
In javascript. 51 characters. Obviously not going to win but eh. :P
Edit -- updated to be 46 characters now, thanks to Strager. :)
UPDATE (March 30 2010)
A faster (precise only to 5 decimal places) 43 character version by David Murdoch
for(a=0,b=1,d=4,c=~4e5;++c;d=-d)a-=d/(b-=2)
Here's a recursive answer using C#. It will only work using the x64 JIT in Release mode because that's the only JIT that applies tail-call optimisation, and as the series converges so slowly it will result in a StackOverflowException without it.
It would be nice to have the IteratePi function as an anonymous lambda, but as it's self-recursive we'd have to start doing all manner of horrible things with Y-combinators so I've left it as a separate function.
public static double CalculatePi()
{
return IteratePi(0.0, 1.0, true);
}
private static double IteratePi(double result, double denom, bool add)
{
var term = 4.0 / denom;
if (term < 0.00001) return result;
var next = add ? result + term : result - term;
return IteratePi(next, denom + 2.0, !add);
}
Most of the current answers assume that they'll get 5 digits accuracy within some number of iterations and this number is hardcoded into the program. My understanding of the question was that the program itself is supposed to figure out when it's got an answer accurate to 5 digits and stop there. On that assumption here's my C# solution. I haven't bothered to minimise the number of characters since there's no way it can compete with some of the answers already out there, so I thought I'd make it readable instead. :)
private static double GetPi()
{
double acc = 1, sign = -1, lastCheck = 0;
for (double div = 3; ; div += 2, sign *= -1)
{
acc += sign / div;
double currPi = acc * 4;
double currCheck = Math.Round(currPi, 5);
if (currCheck == lastCheck)
return currPi;
lastCheck = currCheck;
}
}
Language: C99 (implicit return 0), Char count: 99 (95 + 4 required spaces)
exit condition depends on current value, not on a fixed count
#include <stdio.h>
float p, s=4, d=1;
int main(void) {
for (; 4/d > 1E-5; d += 2)
p -= (s = -s) / d;
printf("%g\n", p);
}
compacted version
#include<stdio.h>
float
p,s=4,d=1;int
main(void){for(;4/d>1E-5;d+=2)p-=(s=-s)/d;printf("%g\n",p);}
Language: dc, Char count: 35
dc -e '9k0 1[d4r/r2+sar-lad274899>b]dsbxrp'
Ruby:
irb(main):031:0> 4*(1..10000).inject {|s,x| s+(-1)**(x+1)*1.0/(2*x-1)}
=> 3.14149265359003
64 chars in AWK:
~# awk 'BEGIN {p=1;for(i=3;i<10^6;i+=4){p=p-1/i+1/(i+2)}print p*4}'
3.14159
C# cheating - 50 chars:
static single Pi(){
return Math.Round(Math.PI, 5));
}
It only says "taking into account the formula write a function..." it doesn't say reproduce the formula programmatically :) Think outside the box...
C# LINQ - 78 chars:
static double pi = 4 * Enumerable.Range(0, 1000000)
.Sum(n => Math.Pow(-1, n) / (2 * n + 1));
C# Alternate LINQ - 94 chars:
static double pi = return 4 * (from n in Enumerable.Range(0, 1000000)
select Math.Pow(-1, n) / (2 * n + 1)).Sum();
And finally - this takes the previously mentioned algorithm and condenses it mathematically so you don't have to worry about keep changing signs.
C# longhand - 89 chars (not counting unrequired spaces):
static double pi()
{
var t = 0D;
for (int n = 0; n < 1e6; t += Math.Pow(-1, n) / (2 * n + 1), n++) ;
return 4 * t;
}
#!/usr/bin/env python
from math import *
denom = 1.0
imm = 0.0
sgn = 1
it = 0
for i in xrange(0, int(1e6)):
imm += (sgn*1/denom)
denom += 2
sgn *= -1
print str(4*imm)

Resources