GCD in standard library?

[Jp Calderone]

On Wed, Mar 12, 2003 at 08:08:18PM -0700, Steven Taschuk wrote:
> Quoth Blake Garretson:
> > [...] I'm just guessing it is very common
> > for people to have to add this to their programs:
> > 
> > def gcd(x,y):
> >   if x % y == 0: return y
> >   else: return gcd(y,x%y)
> 
> I for one haven't needed this in Python yet, but if I did I'd do
> it this way:
> 	def gcd(a, b):
> 		while b:
> 			a, b = b, a % b
> 		return abs(a)
> which (1) avoids the unnecessary recursion, (2) gives the right
> answer for zero operands, and (3) gives a predictable and
> defensible, if not obviously right, answer for negative operands.

  FWIW, tuple packing/unpacking is wasting time in that loop.  I'd do it
with a temporary variable, even though it looks nicer without one :)

  Jp

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