Al,
As promised, here is my inefficient code as written specifically for the Euler problem. 
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Math::BigFloat;

my ($max, $suspect) = (0,0);

N:
for (2..999) {
    my $n = Math::BigFloat->new(1);
    $n->bdiv($_, 4000);
    my ($str) = $n->bstr() =~ /(\d+)\1/;
    my ($best, $orig) = ('', $str);
    while (1) {
        my ($long_match) = $str =~ /(\d+)\1/;

        last if ! defined $long_match;
        next N if $long_match =~ /^(\d)\1+$/;

        # ensure we don't reduce too far
        my $len  = length($long_match);
        my $mult = int(length($orig) / $len);
        last if substr($orig, 0, $len * $mult) !~ /^($long_match)+$/;
        
        $str = $best = $long_match;
    }
    my $len = length($best);
    ($max, $suspect) = ($len, $_) if $len > $max;
}
print "$max\t$suspect\n";

[download]

Cheers - L~R

In reply to Re: Recurring Cycle of Fractions by Limbic~Region
in thread Recurring Cycle of Fractions by Limbic~Region

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.