""" Project Euler Problem 074: https://projecteuler.net/problem=74 Starting from any positive integer number it is possible to attain another one summing the factorial of its digits. Repeating this step, we can build chains of numbers. It is not difficult to prove that EVERY starting number will eventually get stuck in a loop. The request is to find how many numbers less than one million produce a chain with exactly 60 non repeating items. Solution approach: This solution simply consists in a loop that generates the chains of non repeating items. The generation of the chain stops before a repeating item or if the size of the chain is greater then the desired one. After generating each chain, the length is checked and the counter increases. """ def factorial(a: int) -> int: """Returns the factorial of the input a >>> factorial(5) 120 >>> factorial(6) 720 >>> factorial(0) 1 """ # The factorial function is not defined for negative numbers if a < 0: raise ValueError("Invalid negative input!", a) # The case of 0! is handled separately if a == 0: return 1 else: # use a temporary support variable to store the computation temporary_computation = 1 while a > 0: temporary_computation *= a a -= 1 return temporary_computation def factorial_sum(a: int) -> int: """Function to perform the sum of the factorial of all the digits in a >>> factorial_sum(69) 363600 """ # Prepare a variable to hold the computation fact_sum = 0 """ Convert a in string to iterate on its digits convert the digit back into an int and add its factorial to fact_sum. """ for i in str(a): fact_sum += factorial(int(i)) return fact_sum def solution(chain_length: int = 60, number_limit: int = 1000000) -> int: """Returns the number of numbers that produce chains with exactly 60 non repeating elements. >>> solution(60,1000000) 402 >>> solution(15,1000000) 17800 """ # the counter for the chains with the exact desired length chain_counter = 0 for i in range(1, number_limit + 1): # The temporary list will contain the elements of the chain chain_list = [i] # The new element of the chain new_chain_element = factorial_sum(chain_list[-1]) """ Stop computing the chain when you find a repeating item or the length it greater then the desired one. """ while not (new_chain_element in chain_list) and ( len(chain_list) <= chain_length ): chain_list += [new_chain_element] new_chain_element = factorial_sum(chain_list[-1]) """ If the while exited because the chain list contains the exact amount of elements increase the counter """ chain_counter += len(chain_list) == chain_length return chain_counter if __name__ == "__main__": import doctest doctest.testmod() print(f"{solution()}")