Re^2: List::Util can't find max in array of BigInts

Thanks for the welcome, Athanasius. I like what you did with the number separators (600_851_475_143).

#print Dumper \@result;

I'm curious why this dumps the reference to @result. Is there an advantage to this way of doing it?

Lastly, my run at the problem resulted in this code:

use Modern::Perl '2012';
# "All operators (including basic math operations) are overloaded.
use bigint lib => 'Calc, GMP';
use Regexp::Common;
use Data::Dumper;
use List::Util qw/ max /;
use Carp qw/ confess /;

$SIG{__DIE__} = sub {
    confess @_;
}; 

sub big_factors {
    my $n = shift;
    my @factors = [ ];
    my $d = 2;

    # ensure $n is an integer
    if ($n !~ /$RE{num}{real}/) {
        die "Argument was not a real number.";
    }

    while ($n > 1) {
        while ( 0 == $n % $d) {
            push @factors, $d;
            $n /= $d;
        }

        $d += 1;

        if ($d**2 > $n) {
            if ($n > 1) {
                push @factors, $n;
                last;
            }
        }
    }

    return @factors;
}

my @result = big_factors(600851475143);

say max @result;
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Re^3: List::Util can't find max in array of BigInts
by Athanasius (Archbishop) on Apr 26, 2013 at 13:01 UTC

I'm curious why this dumps the reference to @result.

Consider:

22:45 >perl -MData::Dumper -wE "my @c = ( 5, 7, 11 ); say Dumper @c; s
+ay Dumper \@c;"
$VAR1 = 5;
$VAR2 = 7;
$VAR3 = 11;

$VAR1 = [
          5,
          7,
          11
        ];


22:46 >
[download]

I prefer the second form, because I can more easily see the related things grouped together (but YMMV).

my run at the problem resulted in this code:

And now the problem can be diagnosed! It’s in this line:

    my @factors = [ ];
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The square brackets create an empty, anonymous array, and a reference to this anonymous array becomes the first element in the named array @factors. Later, when List::Util::max is called on @factors, it tries to compare the elements in the array to one another, but fails because it doesn’t know how to compare an array reference (that first element) to a Math::BigInt object.

The solution is to simply remove the anonymous array reference, which isn’t needed anyway:

    my @factors;
[download]

and the code now runs without error!

Hope that helps,

Athanasius <°(((>< contra mundum Iustus alius egestas vitae, eros Piratica,

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