Need help understanding this while loop
Do while loop in python
python - While loop example - Stack Overflow
As a beginner how do I understand while loops?
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This is a lame primality test.
% is the mod operator. It performs division and returns the remainder rather than the result of the division. For example, 5 // 2 == 2, and 5 % 2 == 1.
Commented:
x = y // 2 # For some y > 1 ##Reduce search space to half of y
while x > 1:
if y % x == 0: # Remainder ##If x divides y cleanly (4 / 2 == 2)
print(y, 'has factor', x) ##y is not prime
break # Skip else ##Exit the loop
x -= 1 # Normal exit ##Try the next value
else:
print(y, 'is prime')
The program prints at least one factor of an integer y, or if it has no factors (other than itself and 1), prints that y is prime.
It uses the variable x to try all possible factors greater than one. It starts at the floor of y divided by 2, because no number larger than half of y could be a factor. Using normal division rather than floor division could give you a fractional value if y is odd. (An even better solution is to start with the square root of y - if y is not prime, one of its factors will be less than or equal to its square root.)
Inside the loop, it tests y % x, which is the remainder after dividing y by x. If the remainder is zero, that means that x is a factor of y, and it prints it.
The else clause is executed at the end of the loop, unless a factor is found, in which case the "break" skips out of the loop and the else clause. So either a factor is found, or it's prime.
Here's the improved code with the indentation fixed:
import math
def check_primality(y):
x = int(math.sqrt(y))
while x > 1:
if y % x == 0:
print y, 'has factor', x
break
x -= 1
else:
print y, 'is prime'
While loops is kinda frustrating I'm 20 days into python and I'm stuck on loops since last 4 days