Finding the LCM of a range of numbers

Question

I read an interesting DailyWTF post today, \"Out of All The Possible Answers...\" and it interested me enough to dig up the original forum post where it was submitted. This

Answer 1

There's a fast solution to this, so long as the range is 1 to N.

The key observation is that if n (< N) has prime factorization p_1^a_1 * p_2^a_2 * ... p_k * a_k, then it will contribute exactly the same factors to the LCM as p_1^a_1 and p_2^a_2, ... p_k^a_k. And each of these powers is also in the 1 to N range. Thus we only need to consider the highest pure prime powers less than N.

For example for 20 we have

2^4 = 16 < 20
3^2 = 9  < 20
5^1 = 5  < 20
7
11
13
17
19

Multiplying all these prime powers together we get the required result of

2*2*2*2*3*3*5*7*11*13*17*19 = 232792560

So in pseudo code:

def lcm_upto(N):
  total = 1;
  foreach p in primes_less_than(N):
    x=1;
    while x*p <= N:
      x=x*p;
    total = total * x
  return total

Now you can tweak the inner loop to work slightly differently to get more speed, and you can precalculate the primes_less_than(N) function.

EDIT:

Due to a recent upvote I decideded to revisit this, to see how the speed comparison with the other listed algorithms went.

Timing for range 1-160 with 10k iterations, against Joe Beibers and Mark Ransoms methods are as follows:

Joes : 1.85s Marks : 3.26s Mine : 0.33s

Here's a log-log graph with the results up to 300.

Code for my test can be found here:

import timeit


def RangeLCM2(last):
    factors = range(last+1)
    result = 1
    for n in range(last+1):
        if factors[n] > 1:
            result *= factors[n]
            for j in range(2*n, last+1, n):
                factors[j] /= factors[n]
    return result


def lcm(a,b):
    gcd, tmp = a,b
    while tmp != 0:
        gcd,tmp = tmp, gcd % tmp
    return a*b/gcd

def EuclidLCM(last):
    return reduce(lcm,range(1,last+1))

primes = [
 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 
 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 
 73, 79, 83, 89, 97, 101, 103, 107, 109, 113, 
 127, 131, 137, 139, 149, 151, 157, 163, 167, 173, 
 179, 181, 191, 193, 197, 199, 211, 223, 227, 229, 
 233, 239, 241, 251, 257, 263, 269, 271, 277, 281, 
 283, 293, 307, 311, 313, 317, 331, 337, 347, 349, 
 353, 359, 367, 373, 379, 383, 389, 397, 401, 409, 
 419, 421, 431, 433, 439, 443, 449, 457, 461, 463, 
 467, 479, 487, 491, 499, 503, 509, 521, 523, 541, 
 547, 557, 563, 569, 571, 577, 587, 593, 599, 601, 
 607, 613, 617, 619, 631, 641, 643, 647, 653, 659, 
 661, 673, 677, 683, 691, 701, 709, 719, 727, 733, 
 739, 743, 751, 757, 761, 769, 773, 787, 797, 809, 
 811, 821, 823, 827, 829, 839, 853, 857, 859, 863, 
 877, 881, 883, 887, 907, 911, 919, 929, 937, 941, 
 947, 953, 967, 971, 977, 983, 991, 997 ]

def FastRangeLCM(last):
    total = 1
    for p in primes:
        if p>last:
            break
        x = 1
        while x*p <= last:
            x = x * p
        total = total * x
    return total


print RangeLCM2(20)
print EculidLCM(20)
print FastRangeLCM(20)

print timeit.Timer( 'RangeLCM2(20)', "from __main__ import RangeLCM2").timeit(number=10000)
print timeit.Timer( 'EuclidLCM(20)', "from __main__ import EuclidLCM" ).timeit(number=10000)
print timeit.Timer( 'FastRangeLCM(20)', "from __main__ import FastRangeLCM" ).timeit(number=10000)

print timeit.Timer( 'RangeLCM2(40)', "from __main__ import RangeLCM2").timeit(number=10000)
print timeit.Timer( 'EuclidLCM(40)', "from __main__ import EuclidLCM" ).timeit(number=10000)
print timeit.Timer( 'FastRangeLCM(40)', "from __main__ import FastRangeLCM" ).timeit(number=10000)

print timeit.Timer( 'RangeLCM2(60)', "from __main__ import RangeLCM2").timeit(number=10000)
print timeit.Timer( 'EuclidLCM(60)', "from __main__ import EuclidLCM" ).timeit(number=10000)
print timeit.Timer( 'FastRangeLCM(60)', "from __main__ import FastRangeLCM" ).timeit(number=10000)

print timeit.Timer( 'RangeLCM2(80)', "from __main__ import RangeLCM2").timeit(number=10000)
print timeit.Timer( 'EuclidLCM(80)', "from __main__ import EuclidLCM" ).timeit(number=10000)
print timeit.Timer( 'FastRangeLCM(80)', "from __main__ import FastRangeLCM" ).timeit(number=10000)

print timeit.Timer( 'RangeLCM2(100)', "from __main__ import RangeLCM2").timeit(number=10000)
print timeit.Timer( 'EuclidLCM(100)', "from __main__ import EuclidLCM" ).timeit(number=10000)
print timeit.Timer( 'FastRangeLCM(100)', "from __main__ import FastRangeLCM" ).timeit(number=10000)

print timeit.Timer( 'RangeLCM2(120)', "from __main__ import RangeLCM2").timeit(number=10000)
print timeit.Timer( 'EuclidLCM(120)', "from __main__ import EuclidLCM" ).timeit(number=10000)
print timeit.Timer( 'FastRangeLCM(120)', "from __main__ import FastRangeLCM" ).timeit(number=10000)

print timeit.Timer( 'RangeLCM2(140)', "from __main__ import RangeLCM2").timeit(number=10000)
print timeit.Timer( 'EuclidLCM(140)', "from __main__ import EuclidLCM" ).timeit(number=10000)
print timeit.Timer( 'FastRangeLCM(140)', "from __main__ import FastRangeLCM" ).timeit(number=10000)

print timeit.Timer( 'RangeLCM2(160)', "from __main__ import RangeLCM2").timeit(number=10000)
print timeit.Timer( 'EuclidLCM(160)', "from __main__ import EuclidLCM" ).timeit(number=10000)
print timeit.Timer( 'FastRangeLCM(160)', "from __main__ import FastRangeLCM" ).timeit(number=10000)