Which is better way to calculate nCr

Question

Approach 1:
C(n,r) = n!/(n-r)!r!

Approach 2:
In the book Combinatorial Algorithms by wilf, i have found this:
C(n,r) can be written as C(n-1,r) + C

Answer 1

Your Recursive Approach is fine but using DP with your approach will reduce the overhead of solving subproblems again.Now since we already have two Conditions-

nCr(n,r) = nCr(n-1,r-1) + nCr(n-1,r);

nCr(n,0)=nCr(n,n)=1;

Now we can easily build a DP solution by storing our subresults in a 2-D array-

int dp[max][max];
//Initialise array elements with zero
int nCr(int n, int r)
{
       if(n==r) return dp[n][r] = 1; //Base Case
       if(r==0) return dp[n][r] = 1; //Base Case
       if(r==1) return dp[n][r] = n;
       if(dp[n][r]) return dp[n][r]; // Using Subproblem Result
       return dp[n][r] = nCr(n-1,r) + nCr(n-1,r-1);
}

Now if you want to further otimise, Getting the prime factorization of the binomial coefficient is probably the most efficient way to calculate it, especially if multiplication is expensive.

The fastest method I know is Vladimir's method. One avoids division all together by decomposing nCr into prime factors. As Vladimir says you can do this pretty efficiently using Eratosthenes sieve.Also,Use Fermat's little theorem to calculate nCr mod MOD(Where MOD is a prime number).