Twin Primes

April 17, 2012

Our function to compute the twin primes less than n is a straight forward rendering of the algorithm given above, except that there is no need for two bitarrays; as long as we keep the indices straight, the two bitarrays can be combined into one, reducing the space requirement by half. The bitarray and sieving primes are initialized first. The outer do runs through the sieving primes; the first inner do, on i, sifts primes of the form 6k−1, and the second inner do, on j, sifts primes of the form 6k+1. Finally, the named let sweeps up the twin primes, reporting their average 6k, including the initial 4 that isn’t computed because it’s not of the form 6k±1.

(define (twins n)
  (let* ((len (quotient n 6))
         (bits (make-vector len #t))
         (ps (cddr (primes (inexact->exact (ceiling (sqrt n)))))))
    (do ((ps ps (cdr ps))) ((null? ps))
      (let* ((x (inverse 6 (car ps)))
             (x (+ x (if (= (car ps) (- (* 6 x) 1)) (car ps) 0))))
        (do ((i (- x 1) (+ i (car ps)))) ((<= len i))
          (vector-set! bits i #f)))
      (let* ((x (inverse -6 (car ps)))
             (x (+ x (if (= (car ps) (+ (* 6 x) 1)) (car ps) 0))))
        (do ((j (- x 1) (+ j (car ps)))) ((<= len j))
          (vector-set! bits j #f))))
    (let loop ((t 0) (ts (list 4)))
      (cond ((= len t) (reverse ts))
            ((vector-ref bits t)
              (loop (+ t 1) (cons (* 6 (+ t 1)) ts)))
            (else (loop (+ t 1) ts))))))

We use inverse and primes from two previous exercises. You can run the program at http://programmingpraxis.codepad.org/68zEdHFA.

Pages: 1 2

7 Responses to “Twin Primes”

  1. ardnew said

    Perl solution, lots of code

    use strict;
    use warnings;
    
    our $BITS = 32;
    
    # checks if the bit representing parameter n is set
    sub get($$)
    {
      my ($p, $n) = @_;  
      return 0 unless $n & 1;
      return 1 if $n == 2;
      $n >>= 1; # every bit represents an odd integer  
      return $$p[int($n / $BITS)] >> $n % $BITS & 1;
    }
    
    # sets the bit representing parameter n to b
    sub set($$$)
    {
      my ($p, $n, $b) = @_;  
      return unless $n & 1;
      $n >>= 1; # every bit represents an odd integer  
      my ($i, $o) = (int($n / $BITS), $n % $BITS);
      $$p[$i] &= ~(1 << $o);
      $$p[$i] |= !!$b << $o;
    }
    
    # computes the modular inverse
    sub mod_inverse($$) 
    { 
      my $m;
      my ($a, $b, $x, $y, $n) = ((shift) % ($m = shift), $m, 1, 0);
      
      while (0 != $a) 
      { 
        $n = int($b / $a);
        ($a, $b, $x, $y) = ($b - $n * $a, $a, $y - $n * $x, $x); 
      } 
      return $y % $m; 
    } 
    
    #
    # Our primes/sieve table is represented by a list P[] of
    # 32-bit integers. 
    # 
    # We map each natural number K to the bit table P[][] using:
    #
    #     K := 0, K is even
    #     K := P[ K / 64 ][ K (mod 64) ], K is odd
    #
    # This mapping has the advantage of only needing to keep
    # a record of the odd integers, reducing required memory.
    #
    # The list returned is the midpoints of the twins
    #
    sub sieve($)
    {
      my ($n, @a, @b) = shift;  
      
      my $m = sqrt $n;
      my @pairs = (4);
      
      # initialize the bit tables
      (push @a, 0), (push @b, 0) 
        foreach (0 .. ($n >> 1) / $BITS);
      
      # set all our numbers of the form 6k +/- 1
      map { set(\@a, 6 * $_ - 1, 1) } 1 .. ($n + 1) / 6;
      map { set(\@b, 6 * $_ + 1, 1) } 1 .. ($n - 1) / 6;
      
      # perform the sieve
      for (my $i = 3; $i < $m; $i += 2)
      {
        my ($r, $s) = (mod_inverse( 6, $i), 
                       mod_inverse(-6, $i));
                       
        set(\@a, $r, 0) unless get(\@a, $r);
        set(\@b, $s, 0) unless get(\@b, $s);
        
        my $k = $i + $i;
        
        set(\@a, $k, 0), set(\@b, $k, 0), $k += $i 
          while $k < $n;
      }
      
      # align the bits for easy matching
      $_ <<= 1 foreach @a;
      
      # if bits are set in corresponding positions,
      # add the midpoint to our list
      get(\@a, $_) and get(\@b, $_) and 
        push @pairs, $_ - 1 foreach 1 .. $n;
    
      return @pairs;  
    }
    
    0+@ARGV and print join ' ', sieve($ARGV[0]) or 
      die "\nusage:\n\t$0 <upper limit>\n\n";
    
  2. mrjbq7 said

    Solved using Factor.

    : twin-primes-upto ( n — seq )
    primes-upto 2 <clumps> [ first2 – 2 = not ] filter ;

    http://re-factor.blogspot.com/2012/04/twin-primes.html

  3. sibendu dey said

    #include
    #include

    int primecheck(int);
    void twinprime(int);

    void main() {
    int number;
    clrscr();
    printf(“Enter the MAximum number\n”);
    scanf(“%d”,&number);
    twinprime(number);
    printf(“\nThank You!!”);
    getch();
    }
    int primecheck(int prime) {
    int i,flag=1;
    for(i=2;i<=(prime/2);i++) {
    if(prime%i==0) {
    flag=0;
    return flag;
    }
    }
    return flag;
    }

    void twinprime(int max) {
    int i,j;
    for(i=2;i<=(max-2);i++) {
    if(primecheck(i)==1) {
    if(primecheck(i+2)==1) {
    printf("Twin primes are :%d %d\n",i,i+2);
    }
    }
    }
    }

  4. Dreddy said

    Sorry, at work, so syntax might be appalling but off the top of my head I thought something like this idea work:
    (warning may contain java-ish-ness)

    int[] primeArray;

    //find the primes less than N and by checking the usual does it divide by anything except 1 and itself, then add these to an array
    for(int i = 3; i < n; i++){
    int countOfDivisions = 0;
    for(t = 2; t < i – 1; t++){
    if((i.toNum() % t.toNum()) == 0){ //convert to something with decimals and mod that bad boy
    countOfDivisions++;
    }
    }
    if(countOfDivs == 0)
    int.push(i); //add, push, attach, whatever
    }

    //cycle through the array of primes found and print out the pairs, length – 2 to stay in array but check the position after i
    for(int i = 0; i < primeArray.length – 2; i++){
    if(primeArray[i + 1] – primeArray[i] == 2){
    System.out.println(primeArray[i] + ", " + primeArray[i + 1]);
    }
    }

  5. ardnew said

    I don’t mean to be a prude, but all other solutions posted on here completely disregard the proposed algorithm in the exercise description. Instead, they are either filtering the standard prime sieve, or repeatedly doing trial division. Both of these methods are kinda missing the point..

  6. Here’s my solution in Python:

    def twinPrimes(n):
    #list odd numbers
    odd = []
    a = 3
    while a <= n:
    odd.append(a)
    a = a + 2

    #list prime numbers via sieve of eratosthenes
    for p in odd:
    q = 2*p
    while p <= odd[-1]:
    p = p + q
    if p in odd:
    odd.remove(p)

    #odd now contains all prime numbers less than or equal to n
    for i in odd:
    if i + 2 in odd:
    print i, i + 2

  7. Guys, can somebody tell me how to properly insert code here. Thanks! :)

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