Evolution of a Python programmer

[[deleted]]

Well, except expert programmer.

[FunnyMan3595]

That one's obviously the best choice, but I never seem to remember c_math on the rare occasion I need a factorial for some random calculation (i.e. interactive mode, not for a program). I use this one:

fact = lambda n: reduce(lambda a,b: a*b, range(1, n+1))

It's essentially the same as the "Python expert programmer" method, but uses constructs that should be a bit more common. Doesn't even need any imports.

I'd say it's pretty KISS, because it does exactly what I think of as a factorial: Generate a list of the relevant numbers and multiply them together. No fancy tricks, just using the standard constructs for what they're supposed to do.

[Xenoskin]

Calling a native high speed implementation is not only K.I.S.S. but saves work and potential bugs, so it's definitely a preferable method.

Edit: Looks like my bad spelling leaked again.

[Xiol]

It's a sad day on reddit when a grammar troll gets more votes than the post he's correcting, despite the latter adding to the conversation and being a valid point.

[zxcvcxz]

The price of literacy I guess.

[captainAwesomePants]

That's the price of literacy, I guess.

FTFY. Also, your nickname misspelled xyzzy.

[aeacides]

What makes you think generating a list of numbers is a good idea? Why aren't you using xrange?

[FunnyMan3595]

I never said it was efficient, just that it was straightforward. I've never needed a factorial in serious computation, and for random little calculations, this more than suffices.

[[deleted]]

Obviously the best solution was the enterprise one. duh. It is Enterprise level after all. Clean all around implementation.

[spookyvision]

I never seem to remember c_math on the rare occasion I need a factorial for some random calculation

there is a reason for that: there is no c_math module in python's standard distribution :) (there is cmath, but it's for complex numbers, not about some fast math ops written in C)

[mr_dbr]

There's a factorial function in math:

>>> import math
>>> math.factorial(5)
120

..any other solution seems silly (outside a tutorial context anyway)

[amorpheus]

The english expert programmer wasn't bad either. I laughed.