Re: bigger integers

[Alan Mackenzie]

Joe Corneli <jcorneli@math.utexas.edu> wrote on Thu, 02 Sep 2004 17:28:17
-0500:

> This fails on big numbers like 12.

>  (defun factorial (num)
>    (if (<= num 0)
>        1
>      (* num (factorial (1- num)))))

> Suggestions on how to make it work for bigger numbers?

Why on earth do you want to write a program for a calculation than just
about anybody could do in his head?

12! is, of course, 478,002,600.  ;-) 

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Munich, Germany)
Email: aacm@muuc.dee; to decode, wherever there is a repeated letter
(like "aa"), remove half of them (leaving, say, "a").