[bigdunce]

Hi there!
I'm a returning college student in a Python class and I'm STUCK. I promise I'll post a proper intro later, and forgive me if this topic's been beaten to death, but I'm up to my neck and don't have a lot of time. I've got a HW assignment to 1)write a Python program that determines if a given number is prime and then 2) embed the code as a function to find all primes <= n. I've got a working prime-finder, but I can't figure out how to set it up as a function to check all values <n. First, here's my functional prime-detector:

def main():
		n = input("Enter a number:")
		prime = True
		for d in range(3,int(n**0.5)+1,2):
						if n%d==0:			  
							 prime=False
						elif n%2==0:
							prime = False
		if prime==False:
					 print int(n)," is not prime"
		else:
					 print int(n), "is prime"
main()

This is how I have it as a function; it works, but i can't figure out how to attach the range-finder:

def testfun(n):
		
		prime = True
		
		for d in range(3,int(n**0.5)+1,2):
				if n%d==0 or n%2==0:			  
						prime = False			
		if prime==False:
					 pass
		else:
					 print int(n), 


def main():
	n = input("Enter a number:")	
	testfun(n)
main()

and here's a range-finder I wrote that returns "false positives", i.e. odd composites (21, etc.) as prime:

def findprimes(n):
	prime=True
	for n in range(2,n+1):
		n*=1.0		
		if n/2==int(n/2)and n!=2:
			prime = False
			for d in range(2,8):
					if n%d==0:
					 prime=False
			if prime==False:
				 pass
		else:
				 print int(n),

def main():
	print "This program finds all primes"
	print "up to any value 'n'."
	n = input ("enter a number greater than 1:")
	
	findprimes(n)

main()

I hope this isn't overload for my first post, and thanks for any light you can shed.

[luke.dunn]

I made this site for people like you:

Prime Numbers in Python

Hope that helps.

Luke

[bigdunce]

I was hoping for some immediate feedback on what I have so far, and maybe some insight into why it isn't working the way I want it to, but I'll have to check that out when I have time.

[bigdunce]

my, don't the crickets sound lovely this time of the evening? So very peaceful and soothing.

[sempron644]

I had to remind myself what a prime number was, but afterall I came up with this function that works!

def prime_finder():
n = input("Enter a number: ")
n = int(n)
if n%2 == 0:
print(" YOUR NUMBER IS NOT A PRIME NUMBER")
elif n%2 == 1:
print(" YOUR NUMBER IS A PRIME NUMBER")

[bigdunce]

Again, not exactly responding to/critiquing what I've already done/posted. I've got a prime-finder; how do I embed it as a function within a main( ) so that it returns all primes < 'n'? Or how do I fix the one that's passing odd composites as prime? Thanks anyway.

[sempron644]

bigdunce, on 28 Nov, 2009 - 11:13 PM, said:

Again, not exactly responding to/critiquing what I've already done/posted. I've got a prime-finder; how do I embed it as a function within a main( ) so that it returns all primes < 'n'? Or how do I fix the one that's passing odd composites as prime? Thanks anyway.

You'll have to use a class and main or the function your using as the first function definition after the __init__ definition.

But I'm not going to disclose my study of the __init__ method this quick, if you did know it then you'd understand how to make it, still...
this type of thing takes some thought!

Yet, theres still a way for you to do what you're doing, hopefully you don't have to turn it in as a student right away...

[baavgai]

def findprimes(n):
	prime=True # I don't understand why this is set here
	for n in range(2,n+1): # you just obliterated the n that got passed to you, but ok
		n*=1.0 # this seems pointless, maybe detrimental
		if n/2==int(n/2)and n!=2:
			prime = False
			for d in range(2,8): # why check to 8?  what is this supposed to do?
					if n%d==0: # this seems nonsensical, you'll only analyze n%7 anyway
					 prime=False
			if prime==False: # ok, still lost
				 pass
		else:
				 print int(n),

Since you take zero advantage of your list of values, you might as well just do it with a simple isPrime kind of function.

This one would work:

def findprimes(nMax):
	def isPrime(n):
		if (n==1 or n==2):
			return True
		if (n%2)==0:
			return False
		for f in range(3,n/2,2): # start at 3, skip evens, needn't go past half
			if (n%f)==0:
				return False
		return True

	primes = []
	for n in range(1,nMax+1):
		if isPrime(n):
			primes.append(n)
	return primes

However, let's try to do it the right way. There are probably thousands example of this on the web. The thing you want to use for "find primes under n" kind of questions is the "Sieve of Eratosthenes". It's a clever little idea, you can read more here: http://en.wikipedia....of_Eratosthenes

Here's a use of the sieve. The code uses Python's list operations to good effect. If you're unfamiliar with them, you'd do well to read up; they're very handy.

def findprimes(n):
	sieve = [True for i in range(n+1)]
	for i in range(3, n+1):
		if sieve[i]:
			for i in range(i+i, n+1, i):
				sieve[i] = False
	return [i for i in range(n+1) if sieve[i]]

I hope this helps.

[bigdunce]

Sorry I didn't get back here; I was under a deadline and was able to get some help at school. This is what I ended up with:

def findprimes(n,isprime):
		
		for i in range(2,n+1):
				prime = True				
				for d in range(2,int(i**0.5)+1):
								if i%d==0:			  
									 prime=False
								elif i%2==0:
									prime = False
				if prime==False:
							 pass
				else:
							 isprime.append(i) 
		return (isprime)					 
def main():
		isprime=[]
		print "This program finds all primes up to 'n'."
		n = input("Enter a number:")
		prime = True
		findprimes(n,isprime)
		print "The primes are:",isprime

main()

Not very different from baavgai's idea. I like that sieve too. I tried writing one(as well as a zillion other things!), but it just didn't happen. Thanks for pitching in!