1000 digit number in C#

Question

I am working on Project Euler and ran into an issue.

I am unable to use a 1000 digit number and wanted to know if I am doing something wrong or am just going about this solution in the wrong way and if so what would be best approach be?

C#

namespace ToThePowerOf
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            BigInteger n = 1;
            int x = 0;
            BigInteger [] number;
            number = new BigInteger[149194];
            number[x] = 1;
            number[x + 1] = 1;
            x = 3; ;
            BigInteger check = 10000000000000000000000000000
                                0000000000000000000000000000000
                                0000000000000000000000000000000
                                0000000000000000000000000000000
                                0000000000000000000000000000000
                                0000000000000000000000000000000
                                0000000000000000000000000000000
                                0000000000000000000000000000000
                                0000000000000000000000000000000
                                00000000000000000000000;

            for (int i = 99; i > 0; i--)
            {
                n = (n - 1) + (n - 2);
                number[x] = n;
                x++;
                if (n > check)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine(x);
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

I'm probably really late on this, but what I did was take every number and make it a separate object within an array. I then took the first 5 numbers of the array and multiplied them together and set them to a variable. If they were greater than the max, I set it to the max. I then went on to the next set for numbers 1-6 and did the same etc. I did get an out of range exception. In which case you use a try and get format until you receive this exception. If you want to see the code, I will edit my response, but to save you time on the array, if you still want to attempt this, I will give you the array.

 long[] a;
 a = new long[] {
            7,3,1,6,7,1,7,6,5,3,1,3,3,0,6,2,4,9,1,9,2,2,5,1,1,9,6,7,4,4,2,6,5,7,4,7,4,2,3,5,5,3,4,9,1,9,4,9,3,4,
            9,6,9,8,3,5,2,0,3,1,2,7,7,4,5,0,6,3,2,6,2,3,9,5,7,8,3,1,8,0,1,6,9,8,4,8,0,1,8,6,9,4,7,8,8,5,1,8,4,3,
            8,5,8,6,1,5,6,0,7,8,9,1,1,2,9,4,9,4,9,5,4,5,9,5,0,1,7,3,7,9,5,8,3,3,1,9,5,2,8,5,3,2,0,8,8,0,5,5,1,1,
            1,2,5,4,0,6,9,8,7,4,7,1,5,8,5,2,3,8,6,3,0,5,0,7,1,5,6,9,3,2,9,0,9,6,3,2,9,5,2,2,7,4,4,3,0,4,3,5,5,7,
            6,6,8,9,6,6,4,8,9,5,0,4,4,5,2,4,4,5,2,3,1,6,1,7,3,1,8,5,6,4,0,3,0,9,8,7,1,1,1,2,1,7,2,2,3,8,3,1,1,3,
            6,2,2,2,9,8,9,3,4,2,3,3,8,0,3,0,8,1,3,5,3,3,6,2,7,6,6,1,4,2,8,2,8,0,6,4,4,4,4,8,6,6,4,5,2,3,8,7,4,9,
            3,0,3,5,8,9,0,7,2,9,6,2,9,0,4,9,1,5,6,0,4,4,0,7,7,2,3,9,0,7,1,3,8,1,0,5,1,5,8,5,9,3,0,7,9,6,0,8,6,6,
            7,0,1,7,2,4,2,7,1,2,1,8,8,3,9,9,8,7,9,7,9,0,8,7,9,2,2,7,4,9,2,1,9,0,1,6,9,9,7,2,0,8,8,8,0,9,3,7,7,6,
            6,5,7,2,7,3,3,3,0,0,1,0,5,3,3,6,7,8,8,1,2,2,0,2,3,5,4,2,1,8,0,9,7,5,1,2,5,4,5,4,0,5,9,4,7,5,2,2,4,3,
            5,2,5,8,4,9,0,7,7,1,1,6,7,0,5,5,6,0,1,3,6,0,4,8,3,9,5,8,6,4,4,6,7,0,6,3,2,4,4,1,5,7,2,2,1,5,5,3,9,7,
            5,3,6,9,7,8,1,7,9,7,7,8,4,6,1,7,4,0,6,4,9,5,5,1,4,9,2,9,0,8,6,2,5,6,9,3,2,1,9,7,8,4,6,8,6,2,2,4,8,2,
            8,3,9,7,2,2,4,1,3,7,5,6,5,7,0,5,6,0,5,7,4,9,0,2,6,1,4,0,7,9,7,2,9,6,8,6,5,2,4,1,4,5,3,5,1,0,0,4,7,4,
            8,2,1,6,6,3,7,0,4,8,4,4,0,3,1,9,9,8,9,0,0,0,8,8,9,5,2,4,3,4,5,0,6,5,8,5,4,1,2,2,7,5,8,8,6,6,6,8,8,1,
            1,6,4,2,7,1,7,1,4,7,9,9,2,4,4,4,2,9,2,8,2,3,0,8,6,3,4,6,5,6,7,4,8,1,3,9,1,9,1,2,3,1,6,2,8,2,4,5,8,6,
            1,7,8,6,6,4,5,8,3,5,9,1,2,4,5,6,6,5,2,9,4,7,6,5,4,5,6,8,2,8,4,8,9,1,2,8,8,3,1,4,2,6,0,7,6,9,0,0,4,2,
            2,4,2,1,9,0,2,2,6,7,1,0,5,5,6,2,6,3,2,1,1,1,1,1,0,9,3,7,0,5,4,4,2,1,7,5,0,6,9,4,1,6,5,8,9,6,0,4,0,8,
            0,7,1,9,8,4,0,3,8,5,0,9,6,2,4,5,5,4,4,4,3,6,2,9,8,1,2,3,0,9,8,7,8,7,9,9,2,7,2,4,4,2,8,4,9,0,9,1,8,8,
            8,4,5,8,0,1,5,6,1,6,6,0,9,7,9,1,9,1,3,3,8,7,5,4,9,9,2,0,0,5,2,4,0,6,3,6,8,9,9,1,2,5,6,0,7,1,7,6,0,6,
            0,5,8,8,6,1,1,6,4,6,7,1,0,9,4,0,5,0,7,7,5,4,1,0,0,2,2,5,6,9,8,3,1,5,5,2,0,0,0,5,5,9,3,5,7,2,9,7,2,5,
            7,1,6,3,6,2,6,9,5,6,1,8,8,2,6,7,0,4,2,8,2,5,2,4,8,3,6,0,0,8,2,3,2,5,7,5,3,0,4,2,0,7,5,2,9,6,3,4,5,0 
        };

Answer 2

I'm still unsure on the BigInteger handling in C#, however on the Project Euler question you refer to. You can read the number in letter by letter from a text file and convert to an int. Then do the multiplications and checks. Not elegant but it works!

See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.filestream.aspx for syntax ref.

Answer 3

I'm guessing the 'issue' you ran into (would be helpful to include error message) is that the compiler doesn't like the integer literal with 1000 digits so you can't initialise it with a very large integer literal. As others have noted, breaking the integer literal into multiple lines isn't valid either.

The number[x] = 1; lines work because the compiler can handle the integer literal 1 and because we're assigning it to a BigInteger it uses BigInteger's implicit operator to convert it to a BigInteger.

---

One simple method to get around your problem with the big integer literal is to use the BigInteger.Parse method to create your 1000 digit number.

BigInteger check = BigInteger.Parse("10000....", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

Another method could be to initialise it with a small int, then use maths to get to the number you want, as in Jon Skeet's answer.

Answer 4

Such a big literal isn't possible. Integer literals can be at most 64 bits.

To get a large biginteger, you can either convert from string, or calculate the number instead of hardcoding it. In your case calculating it with BigInteger.Pow(10, digits) is the cleanest solution.

Answer 5

There's no literal support for BigInteger in C#. So while using BigInteger isn't incorrect, you'll need to work out a different way of instantiating it - e.g. new BigInteger(10).Pow(1000).