Recursive Factorial Function ( n ! )

  • Comments posted to this topic are about the item Recursive Factorial Function ( n ! )

  • Abslolutely ridiculous example.

    Bad advice.

    This is the most inefficient way of calculating factorials.

    At least if there was a warning that this is intended to show how recursion works along with a warning to novices that in the case of a factorial this definitely not the proper way of doing and why.

  • thanks for the help

  • A better solution with no limits.

    Thanks to:

    http://2smart4school.com/tsql-stored-procedure-to-get-factorial-of-a-given-number/

    CREATE PROCEDURE Factorial (@num INT) AS

    BEGIN

    DECLARE @fact int, @query varchar(255)

    SET @fact = 1

    IF(@num = 0)

    BEGIN

    SET @fact = 1

    END

    ELSE

    BEGIN

    WHILE(@num >0)

    BEGIN

    SET @fact = @fact * @num

    SET @num = @num -1

    END

    END

    RETURN @fact

    END

  • davidrudd (4/12/2013)


    A better solution with no limits.

    Thanks to:

    http://2smart4school.com/tsql-stored-procedure-to-get-factorial-of-a-given-number/

    CREATE PROCEDURE Factorial (@num INT) AS

    BEGIN

    DECLARE @fact int, @query varchar(255)

    SET @fact = 1

    IF(@num = 0)

    BEGIN

    SET @fact = 1

    END

    ELSE

    BEGIN

    WHILE(@num >0)

    BEGIN

    SET @fact = @fact * @num

    SET @num = @num -1

    END

    END

    RETURN @fact

    END

    Not quite true. That stored procedure is limited to a factorial of only 12 because of the INT datatype. Because it's a proc, it's difficult to use in a non-RBAR environment. And I'm not sure that I'd trust anyone's code that blatantly had an unused variable in it. 😉

    I guess I don't understand why people insist on recalculating that which will not change. For example, no matter how many times you calculate it, 170! will always return the same number. So why not calculate it just once and store it in a "helper" table?

    Here's how to make a Factorial "helper" table.

    --===== Create the table with columns for N and N!.

    -- This will prepopulate the values of N, as well.

    SELECT TOP 171

    N = IDENTITY(INT,0,1),

    [N!] = CAST(0 AS FLOAT)

    INTO dbo.Factorial

    FROM sys.all_columns

    ;

    --===== Add the quintessential PK for max performance of future lookups

    ALTER TABLE dbo.Factorial

    ADD CONSTRAINT PK_Factorial

    PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED (N) WITH FILLFACTOR = 100

    ;

    --===== Declare a variable that well need to keep track of the previous product.

    DECLARE @Factorial FLOAT;

    --===== Update the table with factorials.

    UPDATE f

    SET @Factorial = [N!] = CASE WHEN N > 0 THEN @Factorial * N ELSE 1 END

    FROM dbo.Factorial f WITH (TABLOCKX, INDEX(1))

    OPTION (MAXDOP 1)

    ;

    --===== Show our work

    SELECT * FROM dbo.Factorial ORDER BY N;

    Then all you have to do is join to the factorial table for any number of rows in a set based fashion instead of recalculating the same thing over and over.

    --Jeff Moden


    RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
    First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
    ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

    Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.


    Helpful Links:
    How to post code problems
    How to Post Performance Problems
    Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

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