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Apparently, #EXPERT PROGRAMMER wins for efficiency ;)
Tangential, but this is why NumPy totally changed my workflow. I can use all of the benefits of Python, including its libraries and syntax, and still have a program that executes at the speed of C, rather than Python[1].
[1] Not literally the speed of C, but you get the idea.
If you can live with floating point results: from math import gamma def factorial(x): return gamma(x+1) This has the advantage of working correctly for non-integer arguments.
(Of course, this is a silly problem.)
If you can live with floating point results: from math import gamma def factorial(x): return gamma(x+1) This has the advantage of working correctly for non-integer arguments.
Edit: The math module has a factorial() function anyways, so it's a bit of a moot point. Use that :)
Edit Edit: Thanks for the catch, I did mean non-negative integers instead of positive.
If you can live with floating point results: from math import gamma def factorial(x): return gamma(x+1) This has the advantage of working correctly for non-integer arguments.
The factorial itself is only defined for non-negative integers. This may seem pedantic, but what you've defined there is actually Gauss's pi function, which has many interesting mathematical properties, but is not equivalent to the factorial because it has a larger domain. The results that it gives for non-integer arguments aren't any more "correct" than a factorial function throwing an exception, because they're bot…
Half of those are incorrect implementations that junk the stack and most of the rest are idiotic rebaked jokes from the late 90s. Nowhere near to http://www.willamette.edu/~fruehr/haskell/evolution.html which is not only enlightening but actually funny when it tries to; or even to http://www.ariel.com.au/jokes/The_Evolution_of_a_Programmer.... which was funny when it started and still is the original. Can we stop mak…
If you can live with floating point results: from math import gamma def factorial(x): return gamma(x+1) This has the advantage of working correctly for non-integer arguments.
True, but it requires 3.2+ and does not work correctly for large integers (floating-point runs out of precision long before Python's arbitrary-size integers become unusably large.) (Of course, this is a silly problem.)