Multifactorial for IntMath, BigIntegerMath and LongMath

[siemieniuk]

1. What are you trying to do?

I tried to calculate a number of possible Stirling permutations, which is defined as $n!!$, where n >= 0.

Initially I thought about creating an issue related to implement in Guava a method called doubleFactorial(n), however since doubleFactorial is a special case of multifactorial, I thought whether it wouldn't be more beneficial to just implement a generalization of the mentioned concept.

Multifactorial is defined as:

multifactorial(n, k) =

• n * multifactorial(n - k, k), if $n \gt k$
• n, if $1 \le n \le k$
• multifactorial(n+k, k) / (n + k), if $n \le 0$ and $n$ is not a negative multiple of $k$

Examples:

• multifactorial(n, 1) produces exactly the same as n!
• multifactorial(n, 2) is the same as double factorial, so n(n-2)(n-4)...
• multifactorial(n, 3) means n(n-3)(n-6)...

2. What's the best code you can write to accomplish that without the new feature?

I had to implement double factorial by hand, such like:

int doubleFactorial(int n) {
    if (n == 0 || n == 1) {
        return 1;
    }
    int res = n;
    for (int i=n-2; i>1; i-=2) {
        res *= i;
    }
    return res;
}

For multifactorial, the code is very similar. Value 2 is parametrized (for example as k), and the condition becomes:

for (int i=n-k; i>(k-1); i-=k) {
    ....
}

3. What would that same code look like if we added your feature?

Instead of creating double factorial (or multifactorial as a general concept), we could simply type:

int result = IntMath.multiFactorial(6, 2); // 6!!, which is 6*4*2=48
long result2 = LongMath.multiFactorial(6,3); // 6*3 = 18
BigInteger result3 = BigIntegerMath.multiFactorial(4, 1) // the same as 4! = 4*3*2*1 = 24

(Optional) What would the method signatures for your feature look like?

For com.google.common.math.IntMath:

public static int multiFactorial​(int n, int k)

For com.google.common.math.LongMath:

public static long multiFactorial​(int n, int k)

For com.google.common.math.BigIntegerMath:

public static java.math.BigInteger multiFactorial​(int n, int k)

Concrete Use Cases

Remove need for creation of double factorial method “by hand”, which saves time in combinatorial computations. Requested feature (multifactorial) is a generalization of this concept, but the implementation is really similar to double factorial.

Packages

com.google.common.math

Checklist

• I agree to follow the code of conduct.

• I have read and understood the contribution guidelines.

• I have read and understood Guava's philosophy, and I strongly believe that this proposal aligns with it.

• I have visited the idea graveyard, and did not see anything similar to this idea.

[YujingZHG]

Hi I'm a beginner and want to have a try. Would you please assign this to me ? Thx

[nehajha2804]

Hello, I am a beginner will you please allow me to contribute

[eamonnmcmanus]

Even the regular factorial method from IntMath and LongMath is hard to justify. Google's internal source code has just a handful of references to these. So it's hard to imagine that the proposed new method would be used enough to justify its addition to the API.