This extension is an interface to the GNU implementation as a library of the Basic Calculator utility by Philip Nelson; hence the name.
This extension is an interface to the GNU implementation as a library of the Basic Calculator utility by Philip Nelson; hence the name.Note that when you use implementation of factorial that ClaudiuS made, you get results even if you try to calculate factorial of number that you normally can't, e.g. 2.5, -2, etc. Here is safer implementation:
<?php
/**
* Calculates a factorial of given number.
* @param string|int $num
* @throws InvalidArgumentException
* @return string
*/
function bcfact($num)
{
if (!filter_var($num, FILTER_VALIDATE_INT) || $num <= 0) {
throw new InvalidArgumentException(sprintf('Argument must be natural number, "%s" given.', $num));
}
for ($result = '1'; $num > 0; $num--) {
$result = bcmul($result, $num);
}
return $result;
}
?>Needed to compute some permutations and found the BC extension great but poor on functions, so untill this gets implemented here's the factorial function:
<?php
/* BC FACTORIAL
* n! = n * (n-1) * (n-2) .. 1 [eg. 5! = 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 = 120]
*/
function bcfact($n){
$factorial=$n;
while (--$n>1) $factorial=bcmul($factorial,$n);
return $factorial;
}
print bcfact(50);
//30414093201713378043612608166064768844377641568960512000000000000
?>