[Tutor] Problem with python

[Emmanuel Ruellan]

On Tue, Oct 19, 2010 at 11:02 PM, Matthew Nunes <matthewnunes at hotmail.com>wrote:

>
> It wrote a piece of code for the factorial function in math for example 3!
> is 3 * 2 * 1. I cannot understand the how it claimed the code executed, and
> logically it makes no sense to me.
>
>
I suggest you follow the algorithm yourself, with a pencil and a sheet of
paper. Substitute various numerical values for n, starting with zero.

For example:

For n=0, the body of the function becomes:

if 0 == 0:
    return 1
else:
    recurse = factorial(0-1)
    result = 0 * recurse
    return result

What result do you get?

For n=1, it gets a little bit tricky, because the function calls itself:

if 1 == 0:
    return 1
else:
    recurse = factorial(1-1)
    result = 1 * recurse
    return result

You'd like an easier method to calculate factorials?

>>> from math import factorial
>>> print factorial(4)
24

-- 
Emmanuel
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