Iteration for Factorials

[mensanator at aol.com]

On Oct 24, 4:05 pm, Lou Pecora <pec... at anvil.nrl.navy.mil> wrote:
> In article <slrnfhvalj.67s.n... at irishsea.home.craig-wood.com>,
>  Nick Craig-Wood <n... at craig-wood.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > Py-Fun <lorna.bu... at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >  I'm stuck trying to write a function that generates a factorial of a
> > >  number using iteration and not recursion.  Any simple ideas would be
> > >  appreciated.
>
> > Here is the math geek answer ;-)
>
> > import math
>
> > def factorial(i):
> >     n = i + 1
> >     return math.exp(-n)*(n**(n-0.5))*math.sqrt(2*math.pi)*(1. + 1./12/n +
> >     1./288/n**2 - 139./51840/n**3)
>
> > Works for non integer factorials also...
>
> > See here for background
>
> >  http://mathworld.wolfram.com/StirlingsSeries.html
>
> Well, that's Sterling's formula.  You do have to worry about
> convergence/accuracy.
>
> How about (for intergers - simple-minded version):
>
> def factorial(i):
>    fact=1.0
>    for n in xrange(i):
>       fact=n*fact
>    return fact

Simple minded indeed.

>>> factorial(3)
0.0

>
> There might even be an array method that can be adapted to get the
> product.  Is there a product method? (analogous to a sum method)
>
> Then you could use,
>
>    arr=arange(i)+1
>    fact=arr.product()  # or something like that
>
> --
> -- Lou Pecora- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -