How much can you quickly multiply?

Question

With the recent Python bashing, here's an attempt to show Python's strengths. Your challenge is to write a program that calculates the factorial of as high a number n as possible within 10 seconds.

Your score will be (highest n for your program on your machine)/(highest n for my program on your machine)

Rules

• You must calculate an exact integer solution. Since the factorial would be much higher than what can fit in a 64 bit unsigned integer, you can use strings if your language does not support large integers
• Standard loopholes are forbidden. Particularly, you cannot use any external resources.
• Only the calculation part(this includes time for any workarounds using strings) adds to the total time which should be under 10 seconds on average.
• Single threaded programs only.
• You must store the output in an easily printable form (as printing takes time) (see my program below), string, variable, character array, etc.

EDIT:

• Your program must give the correct output for all n: 1 <= n <= (your highest n)

EDIT2:

• I hate to say this explicitly but using your language's built-in factorial functions falls under the standard loopholes http://meta.codegolf.stackexchange.com/a/1078/8766 Sorry Mathematica and Sage

---

My program

from __future__ import print_function
import time


def factorial( n ):
    return reduce( ( lambda x , y : x * y ) , xrange( 1 , n + 1 ) , 1 )

start = time.clock()
answer = factorial( 90000 )
end = time.clock()

print ( answer )
print ( "Time:" , end - start , "sec" )

---

Highest score wins. For the record, my code can manage n = 90000 in about 9.89 seconds on a Pentium 4 3.0 GHz

---

EDIT: Can everyone please add the score rather than just the highest n. Just the highest n has no meaning by itself as it depends on your hardware. It's impossible to have an objective winning criterion otherwise. ali0sha's anwer does this correctly.

---

We have a winner. I didn't accept the java answer https://codegolf.stackexchange.com/a/26974/8766 as it kind of skirts close to http://meta.codegolf.stackexchange.com/a/1080/8766

Answer 1

C++ with GMP, score = 55.55 (10,000,000 / 180,000)

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdint.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <vector>
#include <iostream>
#include <queue>
#include <gmpxx.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
  uint64_t n = atoi(argv[1]);

  // Iterate through 1..n.  Strip off powers of 2.  Multiply
  // remainders together into <= 64 bit chunks.
  uint64_t twos = 0;
  std::vector<uint64_t> terms;
  uint64_t m = 1;
  for(uint64_t i = 1; i <= n; i++) {
    uint64_t j = __builtin_ctzll(i);
    twos += j;
    uint64_t k = i >> j;
    if(__builtin_clzll(m) + __builtin_clzll(k) >= 64) {
      m *= k;
    } else {
      terms.push_back(m);
      m = k;
    }
  }
  if(m != 1) terms.push_back(m);

  // convert to gmp
  // why isn't there a 64-bit constructor?
  std::queue<mpz_class> gmpterms;
  for(int i = 0; i < terms.size(); i++) {
    mpz_class x = (uint32_t)(terms[i] >> 32);
    x <<= 32;
    x += (uint32_t)terms[i];
    gmpterms.push(x);
  }

  // pop two from the bottom, multiply them, push on the end.
  while(gmpterms.size() > 1) {
    mpz_class a = gmpterms.front();
    gmpterms.pop();
    mpz_class b = gmpterms.front();
    gmpterms.pop();
    gmpterms.push(a * b);
  }

  mpz_class r = gmpterms.front();
  r <<= twos;
  //std::cout << r << std::endl;
}

Answer 2

Python 2.7

42.575 = ( 6,812,000 / 160,000 ) approx

---

Code:

import gmpy2

def fac1(n):
    m=lambda(L):([]if len(L)%2==0 else[L.pop()])+map(lambda(l):l[0]*l[1],zip(L[1::2],L[-2::-2]))
    L=map(gmpy2.mpz,xrange(1,n+1))
    Number = (len(L)-1).bit_length()
    while Number:Number-=1;L=m(L)
    return L[0]

def fac2(n):
    global E; E=0
    def f(i):
        global E; E+=i//2
        return[]if i==1 else f(i//2)+range(3,i,2)+[[1,i][i%2]]
    m=lambda(L):([]if len(L)%2==0 else[L.pop()])+map(lambda(l):l[0]*l[1],zip(L[1::2],L[-2::-2]))
    L=map(gmpy2.mpz,f(n))
    N=(len(L)-1).bit_length()
    while N: N-=1;L=m(L)
    return L[0]<<E

Test:

import time

start = time.time()
baseline(160000)
print time.time()-start

start = time.time()
fac1(6811000)
print time.time()-start

start = time.time()
fac2(6812000)
print time.time()-start

start = time.time()
gmpy2.fac(26000000)
print time.time()-start

Output:

10.0069999695
10.0729999542
10.0360000134
9.98699998856

How it works:

Bigger multiplications take more time, thus we want to do as many small multiplications as possible. This is especially true in Python where for numbers less that 2^64 we use hardware arithmetic, and above that we use software. So, in m(L), we start with a list L; if it's odd length we remove one number from consideration to make it even again. Then we multiply element 1 with element -2, element 3 with -4, etc, so that

m([1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]) = [2*7, 4*5, 6*3, 8*1] = [14, 20, 18, 8]
m([10,12,6]) = [360,112]
m([120,6]) = [40320]

This approach ensures we're using hardware arithmetic for as long as possible, following which we switch onto the efficient gmc arithmetic library.

In fac2, we take a more classic divide and conquer approach as well, where we split out every multiple of 2 and bitshift them at the end for a trivial performance boost. I've included it here because it's usually around 0.5% faster than fac1.

Golfed Version of fac1 (because I can), 220B

import gmpy2
def f(n):
    m=lambda(L):([]if len(L)%2==0 else[L.pop()])+map(lambda(l):l[0]*l[1],zip(L[1::2],L[-2::-2]))
    L=map(gmpy2.mpz,xrange(1,n+1));N=(len(L)-1).bit_length()
    while N:N-=1;L=m(L)
return L[0]

Answer 3

Java - 125.15 (21,400,000 / 171,000)

Also shamelessly copied from Peter Luschny's Github repo (thanks @semi-extrinsic) and licensed under the MIT license, this uses the "prime factorization nested squaring" algorithm as proposed by Albert Schönhage et al. (according to Luschny's factorial algorithms description page).

I slightly adapted the algorithm to use Java's BigInteger and to not use a lookup table for n < 20.

Compiled with gcj, which uses GMP for its BigInteger implementation, and ran on Linux 3.12.4 (Gentoo), on a Core i7 4700MQ at 2.40GHz

import java.math.BigInteger;

public class PrimeSieveFactorialSchoenhage {

    private static int[] primeList, multiList;

    public static BigInteger factorial(int n) {
        int log2n = 31 - Integer.numberOfLeadingZeros(n);
        int piN = log2n < 2 ? 1 : 2 + (15 * n) / (8 * (log2n - 1));

        primeList = new int[piN];
        multiList = new int[piN];

        int len = primeFactors(n);
        return nestedSquare(len).shiftLeft(n - Integer.bitCount(n));
    }

    private static BigInteger nestedSquare(int len) {
        if (len == 0) {
            return BigInteger.ONE;
        }

        int i = 0, mult = multiList[0];

        while (mult > 1) {
            if ((mult & 1) == 1) { // is mult odd ?
                primeList[len++] = primeList[i];
            }

            multiList[i++] = mult / 2;
            mult = multiList[i];
        }
        BigInteger ns = nestedSquare(i);
        if (len <= i) {
            return ns.multiply(ns);
        }

        return product(primeList, i, len - i).multiply(ns.multiply(ns));
    }

    private static BigInteger product(int[] a, int start, int length) {
        if (length == 0) {
            return BigInteger.ONE;
        }

        int len = (length + 1) / 2;
        long[] b = new long[len];

        int i, j, k;

        for (k = 0, i = start, j = start + length - 1; i < j; i++, k++, j--) {
            b[k] = a[i] * (long) a[j];
        }

        if (i == j) {
            b[k++] = a[j];
        }

        return recProduct(b, 0, k - 1);
    }

    private static BigInteger recProduct(long[] s, int n, int m) {
        if (n > m) {
            return BigInteger.ONE;
        }
        if (n == m) {
            return BigInteger.valueOf(s[n]);
        }
        int k = (n + m) >> 1;
        return recProduct(s, n, k).multiply(recProduct(s, k + 1, m));
    }

    private static int primeFactors(int n) {
        int[] primes = new int[n < 17 ? 6 : (int) Math.floor(n / (Math.log(n) - 1.5))];
        int numPrimes = makePrimeList(n, primes);

        int maxBound = n / 2, count = 0;

        int start = indexOf(primes, 2, 0, numPrimes - 1);
        int end = indexOf(primes, n, start, numPrimes);

        for (int i = start; i < end; i++) {
            int prime = primes[i];
            int m = prime > maxBound ? 1 : 0;

            if (prime <= maxBound) {
                int q = n;
                while (q >= prime) {
                    m += q /= prime;
                }
            }

            primeList[count] = prime;
            multiList[count++] = m;
        }
        return count;
    }

    private static int indexOf(final int[] data, int value, int low, int high) {
        while (low < high) {
            int mid = (low + high) >>> 1;

            if (data[mid] < value) {
                low = mid + 1;
            } else {
                high = mid;
            }
        }

        if (low >= data.length) {
            return low;
        }

        if (data[low] == value) {
            low++;
        }

        return low;
    }

    private static int makePrimeList(int n, int[] prime) {
        boolean[] composite = new boolean[n / 3];

        sieveOfEratosthenes(composite);

        boolean toggle = false;
        int p = 5, i = 0, j = 2;

        prime[0] = 2;
        prime[1] = 3;

        while (p <= n) {
            if (!composite[i++]) {
                prime[j++] = p;
            }
            // -- never mind, it's ok.
            p += (toggle = !toggle) ? 2 : 4;
        }

        return j; // number of primes
    }

    private static void sieveOfEratosthenes(final boolean[] composite) {
        int d1 = 8;
        int d2 = 8;
        int p1 = 3;
        int p2 = 7;
        int s1 = 7;
        int s2 = 3;
        int n = 0;
        int len = composite.length;
        boolean toggle = false;

        while (s1 < len) { // -- scan sieve
            if (!composite[n++]) { // -- if a prime is found, cancel its multiples
                int inc = p1 + p2;

                for (int k = s1; k < len; k += inc) {
                    composite[k] = true;
                }

                for (int k = s1 + s2; k < len; k += inc) {
                    composite[k] = true;
                }
            }

            if (toggle = !toggle) { // Never mind, it's ok.
                s1 += d2;
                d1 += 16;
                p1 += 2;
                p2 += 2;
                s2 = p2;
            } else {
                s1 += d1;
                d2 += 8;
                p1 += 2;
                p2 += 6;
                s2 = p1;
            }
        }
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        int n = Integer.parseInt(args[0]);
        long nanos = System.nanoTime();
        BigInteger fact = factorial(n);
        nanos = System.nanoTime() - nanos;
        // Commented out because it takes ages to print
        //System.out.println(fact);
        System.out.println(nanos / 1e9);
    }
}

Answer 4

Python 3, n = 100000

A simple algorithm change was all that was needed to bump the sample code up by 10000.

import time

def factorial(n):
    result = 1
    while n > 0:
        result *= n
        n = n - 1
    return result

start = time.clock()
answer = factorial(100000)
end = time.clock()

print(answer)
print("Time:", end - start, "sec")

Obviously not the most creative answer, but there's really only one way to do a factorial....

Answer 5

Perl + C, n = about 3 million

Here I'm using the Math::BigInt::GMP library available on CPAN, which provides a massive speed boost for Perl's core Math::BigInt objects.

use v5.14;
use Time::HiRes 'time';
use Math::BigInt only => 'GMP';

sub factorial { Math::BigInt::->new(@_)->bfac }

my $start  = time;
my $answer = factorial( 3_000_000 );
my $end    = time;

say $answer;
say "Time: ", $end - $start, " sec";

Bear in mind that my computer is probably quite a bit slower than yours. Using your original Python script, I can only calculate factorial(40000) in 10 seconds; factorial(90000) takes a lot longer. (I hit Ctrl+C after a minute.) On your hardware, using Math::BigInt::GMP, you may well be able to calculate the factorial of 5 million or more in under 10 seconds.

One thing you may notice is that although the factorial is calculated incredibly quickly, printing out the result is very slow, taking about three times longer than the original calculation. This is because GMP internally uses a binary rather than decimal representation, and printing it out requires binary to decimal conversion.

Answer 6

C++ (x86_64-specific) - 3.0 (390000/130000)

(easily portable to x86-32, porting to other architectures implies a significant speed loss)

Here's my own micro-implementation of long arithmetic.
The calculation itself takes 10 seconds, and while the output is in easily printable form (see the operator<< overload), it takes some more time to print it.

#include <vector>
#include <iostream>
#include <stdint.h>
#include <ctime>

typedef uint64_t digit;
typedef std::vector<digit> number;

std::ostream &operator<<(std::ostream &s, const number &x)
{
    std::vector<char> o;
    size_t size = x.size() * 21;
    o.resize(size);
    size_t lud = 0;
    for(number::const_reverse_iterator i = x.rbegin(), end = x.rend(); i != end; i++)
    {
        digit carry = 0;
        int j;
        for(j = 0; j <= lud || carry; j++)
        {
            digit r = o[j] * (1LL << 32) + carry;
            o[j] = r % 10;
            carry = r / 10;
        }
        lud = j;
        carry = 0;
        for(j = 0; j <= lud || carry; j++)
        {
            digit r = o[j] * (1LL << 32) + carry;
            o[j] = r % 10;
            carry = r / 10;
        }
        lud = j;
        carry = *i;
        for(j = 0; carry; j++)
        {
            digit r = o[j] + (carry % 10);
            carry /= 10;
            carry += r / 10;
            o[j] = r % 10;
        }
        if(j > lud)
            lud = j;
    }
    for(int j = lud; j--;)
        s.put(o[j] + '0');
    return s;
}

inline uint64_t dmul(uint64_t x, uint64_t y, uint64_t &carry)
{
    asm("mulq %2" : "+a"(x), "=d"(carry) : "r"(y));
    return x;
}
inline digit dadd(digit x, digit y, digit &carry)
{
    asm("movq $0, %1; addq %2, %0; adcq %1, %1" : "+r"(x), "=r"(carry), "+r"(y));
    return x;
}

void multiply(number &x, digit y)
{
    x.resize(x.size() + 2);
    digit carry = 0;
    for(number::iterator i = x.begin(), end = x.end(); i != end; i++)
    {
        digit nc, res = dmul(*i, y, nc);
        *i = dadd(res, carry, carry);
        carry += nc;
    }
    size_t sz = x.size();
    for(number::const_reverse_iterator i = x.rbegin(), end = x.rend(); i != end; i++)
    {
        if(*i)
            break;
        sz--;
    }
    x.resize(sz);
}

int main()
{
    const int r = 390000;
    clock_t start = clock();
    number n;
    digit mult = 1;
    n.push_back(1);
    for(digit a = 2; a <= r; a++)
    {
        digit carry, m = dmul(mult, a, carry);
        if(carry)
        {
            multiply(n, mult);
            mult = a;
        }
        else
            mult = m;
    }
    multiply(n, mult);
    std::cout << "Took: " << (clock() - start)/((double)CLOCKS_PER_SEC) << std::endl;
    std::cout << n << std::endl;
}

Answer 7

C#: 0,48 (77,000 / 160,000)

I'm not happy with this.

Is C# that slow?

But here is my entry anyway.

static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Enter N for fatorial:");
        int n = Convert.ToInt32(Console.ReadLine());

        Stopwatch s = Stopwatch.StartNew();


        BigInteger result = 1;
        while (0 <-- n) result *= n;

        s.Stop();

        Console.WriteLine("Output: {0} ", result);

        Console.WriteLine("Completed in {0}", s.Elapsed);

    }

When n = 77000 it takes 00:00:09:8708952 to calculate.

I'm running in Release mode, outside Visual Studio, using a Core i3-2330M @2.2GHz.

Edit: Since i'm not doing anything intelligent, I accept that result. Maybe the .NET Framework 4.5 is addind some overhead (or BigInteger isn't that fast).

Answer 8

Python 2.7
5.94 = 1'200'000/202'000

def fast_fac(n):
    def prod(start, fin):
            if fin - start <= 50:
                    return reduce(lambda x,y: x*y, xrange(start, fin+1), 1)
            else:
                    mid = (start+fin) / 2
                    return prod(start, mid) * prod(mid+1, fin)
    return prod(1, n)

Makes use of relative ease of multiplication of many groups of small numbers and then multiplying them compared to large number of multiplyings involving huge number.

Answer 9

bc, score=0.19

What the heck, here's my contender for "How much can you slowly multiply?"

bc is "An arbitrary precision calculator language", but unfortunately rather slow:

n=read()
for(f=i=1;i<=n;i++)f*=i
f
quit

In about 10 seconds on my mid 2012 MacBook Pro (2.3 GHz Intel Core i7) the reference python answer can calculate 122000!, but this bc script can only calculate 23600!.

Conversely 10000! takes 1.5s with the python reference script, but the bc script takes 50s.

Oh dear.

Answer 10

Bash: score = 0.001206 (181/150000)

I stole the math functions from Rosettacode - Long multiplication I didn't analyzed nor tried to optimize.
You are free to change the algorithm or to try a different strings split method.

#!/bin/bash


add() { # arbitrary-precision addition
  if (( ${#1} < ${#2} )); then
    local a="$2" b="$1" sum= carry=0
  else
    local a="$1" b="$2" sum= carry=0
  fi

  while (( ${#a} )); do
    local -i d1="${a##${a%?}}" d2="10#0${b##${b%?}}" s=carry+d1+d2
    sum="${s##${s%?}}$sum"
    carry="10#0${s%?}"
    a="${a%?}" b="${b%?}"
  done
  echo "$sum"
}

multiply() { # arbitrary-precision multiplication
  if (( ${#1} < ${#2} )); then
    local a="$2" b="$1" product=0
  else
    local a="$1" b="$2" product=0
  fi

  local zeroes=
  while (( ${#b} )); do
    local m1="$a"
    local m2="${b##${b%?}}"
    local partial=$zeroes 
    local -i carry=0
    while (( ${#m1} )); do 
      local -i d="${m1##${m1%?}}"
      m1="${m1%?}"
      local -i p=d*m2+carry
      partial="${p##${p%?}}$partial"
      carry="10#0${p%?}"
    done
    partial="${carry#0}$partial"
    product="$(add "$product" "$partial")"
    zeroes=0$zeroes
    b="${b%?}"
  done
  echo "$product"
}

# 'timerun' function
trap 'echo $((i -1)) $f; exit'  USR1  
(sleep 9.9; kill -USR1 $$)&

declare -i i 
f=1
for ((i=1; i< 10000 ; i++ ))   # 10000 is verry optimistic
do
    f=$(multiply $f $i)
done 

Answer 11

Python 3, advanced algo by Peter Luschny: 8.25x (1 280 000/155 000)

Shamelessly copied from Peter Luschny,
http://www.luschny.de/math/factorial/FastFactorialFunctions.htm,
who provides this code under the "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0" license.

This is actually a quite advanced algorithm, using something called the "swinging factorial" and a list of primes. I suspect it could be even faster if it did like many of the other answers and performed most of the multiplications with 32 bit integers.

#! /usr/bin/python3
import time
import bisect 

def Primes(n) : 
  primes = [2, 3] 
  lim, tog = n // 3, False 
  composite = [False for i in range(lim)] 

  d1 = 8; d2 = 8; p1 = 3; p2 = 7; s = 7; s2 = 3; m = -1 

  while s < lim :             # --  scan the sieve 
      m += 1                  # --  if a prime is found 
      if not composite[m] :   # --  cancel its multiples 
          inc = p1 + p2 
          for k in range(s,      lim, inc) : composite[k] = True 
          for k in range(s + s2, lim, inc) : composite[k] = True 

          tog = not tog 
          if tog: s += d2; d1 += 16; p1 += 2; p2 += 2; s2 = p2 
          else:   s += d1; d2 +=  8; p1 += 2; p2 += 6; s2 = p1 

  k, p, tog = 0, 5, False 
  while p <= n : 
      if not composite[k] : primes.append(p) 
      k += 1; 
      tog = not tog 
      p += 2 if tog else 4 

  return primes 

def isqrt(x): 
  ''' 
  Writing your own square root function
  ''' 
  if x < 0: raise ValueError('square root not defined for negative numbers') 
  n = int(x) 
  if n == 0: return 0 
  a, b = divmod(n.bit_length(), 2) 
  x = 2**(a + b) 
  while True: 
      y = (x + n // x) // 2 
      if y >= x: return x 
      x = y 

def product(s, n, m): 
  if n > m: return 1 
  if n == m: return s[n] 
  k = (n + m) // 2 
  return product(s, n, k) * product(s, k + 1, m) 

def factorialPS(n): 

  small_swing = [1,1,1,3,3,15,5,35,35,315,63,693,231,3003,429,6435,6435, 
          109395,12155,230945,46189,969969,88179,2028117,676039,16900975, 
          1300075,35102025,5014575,145422675,9694845,300540195,300540195] 

  def swing(m, primes): 
      if m < 33: return small_swing[m] 

      s = bisect.bisect_left(primes, 1 + isqrt(m)) 
      d = bisect.bisect_left(primes, 1 + m // 3) 
      e = bisect.bisect_left(primes, 1 + m // 2) 
      g = bisect.bisect_left(primes, 1 + m) 

      factors = primes[e:g] 
      factors += filter(lambda x: (m // x) & 1 == 1, primes[s:d]) 
      for prime in primes[1:s]:   
          p, q = 1, m 
          while True: 
              q //= prime 
              if q == 0: break 
              if q & 1 == 1: 
                  p *= prime 
          if p > 1: factors.append(p) 

      return product(factors, 0, len(factors) - 1) 

  def odd_factorial(n, primes): 
      if n < 2: return 1 
      return (odd_factorial(n // 2, primes)**2) * swing(n, primes) 

  def eval(n): 
      if n < 0: 
          raise ValueError('factorial not defined for negative numbers') 

      if n == 0: return 1 
      if n < 20: return product(range(2, n + 1), 0, n-2) 

      N, bits = n, n 
      while N != 0: 
          bits -= N & 1 
          N >>= 1 

      primes = Primes(n) 
      return odd_factorial(n, primes) * 2**bits 

  return eval(n)

start = time.time()
answer = factorialPS(1280000) 
print(time.time()-start)

Answer 12

Java - 10.9

n = 885000

Mergesort-y.

import java.math.BigInteger;

public class Factorials {

    public static BigInteger fac;

    public static BigInteger two = BigInteger.valueOf(2);

    static BigInteger mul(BigInteger start, BigInteger end) {
        if(start.equals(end)) {
            return start;
        } else {
            BigInteger mid = start.add(end.subtract(start).divide(Factorials.two));
            return Factorials.mul(start, mid).multiply(Factorials.mul(mid.add(BigInteger.ONE), end));
        }
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Factorials.fac = BigInteger.valueOf(Integer.parseInt(args[0]));
        long t = System.nanoTime();
        BigInteger result = mul(BigInteger.ONE, fac);
        t = System.nanoTime() - t;
        System.out.print(String.valueOf(((float) t) / 1000000000)); //result.toString()+" @ "+
    }
}

BigIntegers are slow.

Recommendations for arbitrary-precision high-speed Java integer libraries? :P

Answer 13

tcl, 13757

My answer is to check the limits of tcl.

The first line is only to set an input parameter:

set n 13757

The others are the algorithm itself:

set r 2
for {set i 3} {$i <= $n} {incr i} {set r [expr {$r*$i}]}   
puts $r

I tested my code on http://rextester.com/live/WEL36956; If I make n bigger, I get a SIGKILL; may n can get bigger on a local tcl interpreter, which I do not have.

Answer 14

Python 3: 280000 / 168000

Time running your program: between 9.87585953253 and 10.3046453994. Time running my program: about 10.35296977897559.

import time

def factorial(n):
    f = 1
    while n > 1:
        hn = n >> 1
        f = f * 2**hn * double_factorial(n) #dfl[hn + (n & 1) - 1]
        n = hn
    return f
def double_factorial(n):
    #dfl = [1]
    p = 1
    l = 3
    mh = n
    while l <= n:
        p *= l
        l += 2
        #dfl.append(p)
    return p

start = time.clock()
factorial(280000)
end = time.clock()

print(end - start)

I read this answer on cs.SE and decided to try to implement it in Python. However, I accidentally discovered that n! = (⌊n / 2⌋)! * 2**(⌊n / 2⌋) * n!! (note: !! is the double factorial). So I converted that to a non-recursive form.

The comments show my attempt to avoid recomputing the double factorial, but I discovered that storing every value was too memory-costly that it caused my computer to run even slower. I can improve this by only storing what is needed.

Strangely, I implemented the naive straight multiplication in Python 3, and it does better than your program: n = 169000 in 10 seconds.:

def factorial(n):
    p=1
    for i in range(n):
        p*=i+1
    return p

Answer 15

Ruby 2.1

score = 1.80 = 176_000 / 98_000

EDIT: improved from 1.35 = 132_000 / 98_000

I took ideas from the GMP factorial algorithm. This program uses the standard library to generate prime numbers. Ruby is a bad choice because multiplication seems slower in Ruby than in Python.

1. My program in Ruby 2.1: score = 1.80 = 176_000 / 98_000
2. Trivial algorithm in Python 2.7: score = 1 = 98_000 / 98_000
3. Trivial algorithm in Ruby 2.1: score = 0.878 = 86_000 / 98_000

Yes, my binary of ruby 2.1.0p0 (2013-12-25 revision 44422) [x86_64-openbsd] links against GMP. Ruby 2.1 added a feature to use GMP for large multiplication, but it still seems slower than Python 2.7.

require 'benchmark'
require 'optparse'
require 'prime'

def factorial(n)
  # calculate primes up to n, drop the 2
  @odd_primes = Prime.each(n).drop(1)

  # count prime factors of factorial(n)
  @factors = Hash.new(0)
  factorial_recurse(n)

  shift = @factors.delete(2) || 0
  @factors.inject(1) {|product, (base, exp)|
    product * base**exp
  } << shift
end

def factorial_recurse(n)
  return if n < 2

  # collect prime factors of 2 * 4 * 6 * .. * n
  #  = (2 * 2 * 2 * .. * 2) * (1 * 2 * 3 * .. * exp)
  #  = 2**exp * factorial(exp) where exp = floor(n/2)
  exp = n >> 1
  factorial_recurse(exp)
  @factors[2] += exp

  # collect prime factors 3 * 5 * 7 * ... * n
  for prime in @odd_primes
    break if prime > n
    exp = 0
    # count occurences of prime, prime**2, prime**3, .. n
    prime_power = prime
    until prime_power > n
      # floor(n / prime_power) occurences in 1 * 2 * .. * n,
      # but only ceil(count / 2) occurences in 3 * 5 * .. * n
      @factors[prime] += (n / prime_power + 1) >> 1
      prime_power *= prime
    end
  end
end

# usage: factorial.rb [-ct] [number]
cflag = tflag = false
OptionParser.new {|opts|
  opts.on('-c', 'Check for bugs') { cflag = true }
  opts.on('-t', 'Use trivial algorithm') { tflag = true }
  opts.parse!
}
$*[1] and fail 'too many arguments'
n = Integer($*[0] || 176_000)

if cflag
  factorial(n) == (1..n).reduce(1, :*) or
    fail "bad program: factorial(#{n}) is wrong"
  puts "ok"
  exit
end

# measure processor time to calculate factorial
f = nil
if tflag
  time = Benchmark.measure { f = (1..n).reduce(1, :*) }
else
  time = Benchmark.measure { f = factorial(n) }
end
puts f
puts "Time #{time.total} sec"

Answer 16

Julia - Score = 15.194

Utilising the exact same approach as that of the reference program... that is,

f(n)=reduce(*,1:big(n))

So it uses reduce, the basic binary multiplication operation, and a range (in this case, using big(n) to force the calculation to be done in BigInt rather than Int64). From this, I get

julia> @time K=f(2340000);
elapsed time: 9.991324093 seconds (814552840 bytes allocated)

On my computer, with reference program running with input of 154000, I get Time: 10.041181 sec output (run using python ./test.py, where test.py is the name of the file containing the reference code)