counting combinations and permutations efficiently

Question

I have some code to count permutations and combinations, and I\'m trying to make it work better for large numbers.

I\'ve found a better algorithm for permutations th

Answer 1

If your problem does not require knowing the exact number of permutations or combinations, then you could use Stirling's approximation for the factorial.

That would lead to code like this:

import math

def stirling(n):
    # http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling%27s_approximation
    return math.sqrt(2*math.pi*n)*(n/math.e)**n

def npr(n,r):
    return (stirling(n)/stirling(n-r) if n>20 else
            math.factorial(n)/math.factorial(n-r))

def ncr(n,r):    
    return (stirling(n)/stirling(r)/stirling(n-r) if n>20 else
            math.factorial(n)/math.factorial(r)/math.factorial(n-r))

print(npr(3,2))
# 6
print(npr(100,20))
# 1.30426670868e+39
print(ncr(3,2))
# 3
print(ncr(100,20))
# 5.38333246453e+20