primes: Prime Numbers

In pracma: Practical Numerical Math Functions

Prime Numbers

Description

Generate a list of prime numbers less or equal n, resp. between n1 and n2.

Usage

  primes(n)

Arguments

n	nonnegative integer greater than 1.

Details

The list of prime numbers up to n is generated using the "sieve of Erasthostenes". This approach is reasonably fast, but may require a lot of main memory when n is large.

In double precision arithmetic integers are represented exactly only up to 2^53 - 1, therefore this is the maximal allowed value.

Value

vector of integers representing prime numbers

See Also

isprime, factors

Examples

primes(1000)
## Not run: 
##  Appendix:  Logarithmic Integrals and Prime Numbers (C.F.Gauss, 1846)

library('gsl')
# 'European' form of the logarithmic integral
Li <- function(x) expint_Ei(log(x)) - expint_Ei(log(2))

# No. of primes and logarithmic integral for 10^i, i=1..12
i <- 1:12;  N <- 10^i
# piN <- numeric(12)
# for (i in 1:12) piN[i] <- length(primes(10^i))
piN <- c(4, 25, 168, 1229, 9592, 78498, 664579,
         5761455, 50847534, 455052511, 4118054813, 37607912018)
cbind(i, piN, round(Li(N)), round((Li(N)-piN)/piN, 6))

#  i     pi(10^i)      Li(10^i)  rel.err  
# --------------------------------------      
#  1            4            5  0.280109
#  2           25           29  0.163239
#  3          168          177  0.050979
#  4         1229         1245  0.013094
#  5         9592         9629  0.003833
#  6        78498        78627  0.001637
#  7       664579       664917  0.000509
#  8      5761455      5762208  0.000131
#  9     50847534     50849234  0.000033
# 10    455052511    455055614  0.000007
# 11   4118054813   4118066400  0.000003
# 12  37607912018  37607950280  0.000001
# --------------------------------------
## End(Not run)

pracma documentation built on Nov. 10, 2023, 1:14 a.m.