# List of first n prime numbers most efficiently and in shortest code [closed]

Rules are simple:

• First n primes (not primes below n), should be printed to standard output separated by newlines (primes should be generated within the code)
• primes cannot be generated by an inbuilt function or through a library, i.e. use of a inbuilt or library function such as, prime = get_nth_prime(n), is_a_prime(number), or factorlist = list_all_factors(number) won't be very creative.
• Scoring - Say, we define Score = f([number of chars in the code]), O(f(n)) being the complexity of your algorithm where n is the number of primes it finds. So for example, if you have a 300 char code with O(n^2) complexity, score is 300^2 = 90000, for 300 chars with O(n*ln(n)), score becomes 300*5.7 = 1711.13 (let's assume all logs to be natural logs for simplicity)

• Use any existing programming language, lowest score wins

Edit: Problem has been changed from finding 'first 1000000 primes' to 'first n primes' because of a confusion about what 'n' in O(f(n)) is, n is the number of primes you find (finding primes is the problem here and so complexity of the problem depends on the number of primes found)

Note: to clarify some confusions on complexity, if 'n' is the number of primes you find and 'N' is the nth prime found, complexity in terms of n is and N are not equivalent i.e. O(f(n)) != O(f(N)) as , f(N) != constant * f(n) and N != constant * n, because we know that nth prime function is not linear, I though since we were finding 'n' primes complexity should be easily expressible in terms of 'n'.

As pointed out by Kibbee, you can visit this site to verify your solutions (here, is the old google docs list)

• what complexity your program has (include basic analysis if not trivial)

• character length of code

• the final calculated score

This is my first CodeGolf Question so, if there is a mistake or loophole in above rules please do point them out.

## closed as unclear what you're asking by user202729, Sriotchilism O'Zaic, Xcali, Chris, TotoApr 11 '18 at 7:47

Please clarify your specific problem or add additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it’s hard to tell exactly what you're asking. See the How to Ask page for help clarifying this question. If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.

• This is very similar to codegolf.stackexchange.com/questions/5977/… . – Gareth Jun 10 '12 at 17:12
• My answer for that one was 1[\p:i.78498 my answer for this would be 1[\p:i.1000000. Even assuming that J's internal prime algorithm is O(n^2) my score would still only be 196. – Gareth Jun 10 '12 at 17:23
• Nobody seems to manage to calculates their complexity properly. There's confusion about whether n is the number of primes or the maximum prime, and everyone ignores the fact that addition of numbers in the range 0..n is O(logn), and multiplication and division are even more expensive. I suggest that you give some example algorithms along with their correct complexity. – ugoren Jun 11 '12 at 6:35
• The current best known primality test for a k-bit number is O-tilde(k^6). This leads to the implication that anyone who claims a running time better than O-tilde(n ln n (ln(n ln n))^6) has misunderstood some part of the problem; and to the question as to how O-tilde complexities should be handled in the scoring. – Peter Taylor Jun 11 '12 at 7:26
• Nobody has pointed out, that O(n) is equivalent to O(kn) (for constant k) in complexity terms, but not in score terms. For example, suppose my complexity is O(n^10). That is equivalent to O(n^10 * 1E-308), and I may still win the challenge with a huge program with terrible complexity. – JDL Oct 20 '16 at 12:49

## Python (129 chars, O(n*log log n), score of 203.948)

I'd say the Sieve of Eratosthenes is the way to go. Very simple and relatively fast.

N=15485864
a=[1]*N
x=xrange
for i in x(2,3936):
if a[i]:
for j in x(i*i,N,i):a[j]=0
print [i for i in x(len(a))if a[i]==1][2:]


Improved code from before.

## Python (191 156 152 chars, O(n*log log n)(?), score of 252.620(?))

I cannot at all calculate complexity, this is the best approximation I can give.

from math import log as l
n=input()
N=n*int(l(n)+l(l(n)))
a=range(2,N)
for i in range(int(n**.5)+1):
a=filter(lambda x:x%a[i] or x==a[i],a)
print a[:n]


n*int(l(n)+l(l(n))) is the top boundary of the nth prime number.

• The complexity (and thus score) calculation is based on the upper bound n but not on the number of primes. Thus, I assume the score has to be higher. See my comment above. – Howard Jun 11 '12 at 5:13
• Upper bound n? What's that? – beary605 Jun 11 '12 at 5:35
• The upper bound here is N=15485864. For complexity calculations based on n=1000000, you can say N=n*log(n) (because of the density of primes). – ugoren Jun 11 '12 at 6:31
• If my score needs to be fixed, please fix it for me, I still don't have a good understanding of the scoring system. – beary605 Jun 11 '12 at 6:39
• @beary605 would it be ok if I modified the problems to finding first n primes? that would solve a lot of confusion on complexity and what n is in O(f(n)) – Optimus Jun 11 '12 at 6:44

## Haskell, n^1.1 empirical growth rate, 89 chars, score 139 (?)

The following works at GHCi prompt when the general library that it uses have been previously loaded. Print n-th prime, 1-based:

let s=3:minus[5,7..](unionAll[[p*p,p*p+2*p..]|p<-s])in getLine>>=(print.((0:2:s)!!).read)

This is unbounded sieve of Eratosthenes, using a general-use library for ordered lists. Empirical complexity between 100,000 and 200,000 primes O(n^1.1). Fits to O(n*log(n)*log(log n)).

I measured run time for 100k and 200k primes, then calculated logBase 2 (t2/t1), which produced n^1.09. Defining g n = n*log n*log(log n), calculating logBase 2 (g 200000 / g 100000) gives n^1.12.

Then, 89**1.1 = 139, although g(89) = 600.       --- (?)

It seems that for scoring the estimated growth rate should be used instead of complexity function itself. For example, g2 n = n*((log n)**2)*log(log n) is much better than n**1.5, but for 100 chars the two produce score of 3239 and 1000, respectively. This can't be right. Estimation on 200k/100k range gives logBase 2 (g2 200000 / g2 100000) = 1.2 and thus score of 100**1.2 = 251.

Also, I don't attempt to print out all primes, just the n-th prime instead.

## No imports, 240 chars. n^1.15 empirical growth rate, score 546.

main=getLine>>=(print.s.read)
s n=let s=3:g 5(a[[p*p,p*p+2*p..]|p<-s])in(0:2:s)!!n
a((x:s):t)=x:u s(a$p t) p((x:s):r:t)=(x:u s r):p t g k s@(x:t)|k<x=k:g(k+2)s|True=g(k+2)t u a@(x:r)b@(y:t)=case(compare x y)of LT->x:u r b;EQ->x:u r t;GT->y:u a t  ## Haskell, 72 89 chars, O(n^2), Score 7921 Highest score per char count wins right? Modified for first N. Also I apparently can't use a calculator, so my score is not as abysmally bad as I thought. (using the complexity for basic trial division as found in the source below). As per Will Ness the below is not a full Haskell program (it actually relies on the REPL). The following is a more complete program with a pseudo-sieve (the imports actually save a char, but I dislike imports in code golf). main=getLine>>= \x->print.take(read x).(let s(x:y)=x:s(filter((>0).(modx))y)in s)$[2..]


This version is undoubtedly (n^2). The algorithm is just a golf version of the naive sieve'', as seen here Old ghci 1 liner

getLine>>= \x->print.take(read x)$Data.List.nubBy(\x y->xmody==0)[2..]  Leaving up the old, cheating answer because the library it links to is pretty nice. print$take(10^6)Data.Numbers.Primes.primes


See here for an implementation and the links for the time complexity. Unfortunately wheels have a log(n) lookup time, slowing us down by a factor.

• •primes cannot be generated by an inbuilt functon or through a library – beary605 Jun 11 '12 at 5:11
• @walpen I'am sorry I modified the rules without notification, please make the changes as you see fit – Optimus Jun 11 '12 at 8:21
• Wouldn't the complexity be something like O((n ln n)^1.5 ln (n ln n)^0.585)? (Or O((n ln n)^1.5 ln (n ln n)) if Haskell uses naive division rather than, as I've assumed, Karatsuba) – Peter Taylor Jun 11 '12 at 11:50
• No, because that gives me a horrendous score :/. But I'm sure you're right. It just looked like trial division, and that's the time complexity of trial division (maybe, according to my poor reading comprehension of a possibly wrong source) so I picked that. For now I'll call my score NaN, that seems safe. – walpen Jun 11 '12 at 20:01
• I'm assuming (my Haskell is negligible, but I know how it would be natural to do it in SML...) that you're only doing trial division by smaller primes, in which case trial division on a P does O(P^0.5 / ln P) divisions. But if P has k bits, a division takes O(k^1.585) (Karatsuba) or O(k^2) (naïve) time, and you need to run through O(n lg n) numbers of length O(ln(n lg n)) bits. – Peter Taylor Jun 11 '12 at 22:11

## C#, 447 Characters, Bytes 452, Score ?

using System;namespace PrimeNumbers{class C{static void GN(ulong n){ulong primes=0;for (ulong i=0;i<(n*3);i++){if(IP(i)==true){primes++;if(primes==n){Console.WriteLine(i);}}}}static bool IP(ulong n){if(n<=3){return n>1;}else if (n%2==0||n%3==0){return false;}for(ulong i=5;i*i<=n;i+=6){if(n%i==0||n%(i+2)==0){return false;}}return true;}static void Main(string[] args){ulong n=Convert.ToUInt64(Console.ReadLine());for(ulong i=0;i<n;i++){GN(i);}}}}


## scriptcs Variant, 381 Characters, 385 Bytes, Score ?

using System;static void GetN(ulong n){ulong primes=0;for (ulong i=0;i<(n*500);i++){if(IsPrime(i)==true){primes++;if(primes==n){Console.WriteLine(i);}}}}public static bool IsPrime(ulong n){if(n<=3){return n>1;}else if (n%2==0||n%3==0){return false;}for(ulong i=5;i*i<=n;i+=6){if(n%i==0||n%(i+2)==0){return false;}}return true;}ulong n=Convert.ToUInt64(Console.ReadLine());for(ulong i=0;i<n;i++){GetN(i);}


If you install scriptcs then you can run it.

P.S. I wrote this in Vim :D

• You can save some characters by removing some unnecessary whitespace. For example, it's not necessary to put whitespace around an = and < sign. Also, I don't think there's a difference in bytes and characters for this code -- it's 548 characters and 548 bytes. – ProgramFOX Feb 13 '15 at 16:11
• Oh thanks, this is my first CodeGolf! – XiKuuKy Feb 14 '15 at 3:50

## GolfScript (45 chars, score claimed ~7708)

~[]2{..3${1$\%!}?={.@\+\}{;}if)1$,3$<}do;\;n*


This does simple trial division by primes. If near the cutting edge of Ruby (i.e. using 1.9.3.0) the arithmetic uses Toom-Cook 3 multiplication, so a trial division is O(n^1.465) and the overall cost of the divisions is O((n ln n)^1.5 ln (n ln n)^0.465) = O(n^1.5 (ln n)^1.965)†. However, in GolfScript adding an element to an array requires copying the array. I've optimised this to copy the list of primes only when it finds a new prime, so only n times in total. Each copy operation is O(n) items of size O(ln(n ln n)) = O(ln n)†, giving O(n^2 ln n).

And this, boys and girls, is why GolfScript is used for golfing rather than for serious programming.

O(ln (n ln n)) = O(ln n + ln ln n) = O(ln n). I should have spotted this before commenting on various posts...

This is so easy even my text editor can do this!

# Vim: 143 keystrokes (115 actions): O(n^2*log(n)): Score: 101485.21

## Submission:

qpqqdqA^V^Ayyp<Esc>3h"aC@a<Esc>0C1<Esc>@"ddmpqdmd"bywo^Ra ^Rb 0 0 pj@p ^Ra 0 ^R=@a%@b<Enter> pdd@p 0 dj@d<Esc>0*w*wyiWdd@0qqpmp"aywgg@dqgg@p


Input: N should be on the first line of a blank document. After this is finished, each prime from 2 to N will be a separate line.

## Running the Commands:

First, note that any commands with a caret in front of them mean you need to hold Ctrl and type the next letter (e.g. ^V is Ctrl-v and ^R is Ctrl-r).

This will overwrite anything in your @a, @b, @d, and @p registers.

Because this uses q commands, it can't just be placed in a macro. However, here are some tips for running it.

• qpqqdq just clears registers
• A^V^Ayyp<Esc>3h"aC@a<Esc>0C1<Esc>@"dd will create a list of numbers 2 to N+1. This is a break between the two main parts, so once this is done, you shouldn't need to do it again
• mpqdmd"bywo^Ra ^Rb 0 0 pj@p ^Ra 0 ^R=@a%@b<Enter> pdd@p 0 dj@d<Esc>0*w*wyiWdd@0qqpmp"aywgg@dqgg@p does need to be typed in one go. Try to avoid backspace as it may screw something up.
• If you make a mistake, type qdqqpq then try this line again.

For large N, this is very slow. It took around 27 minutes to run N=5000; consider yourself warned.

## Algorithm:

This uses a basic recursive algorithm for finding primes. Given a list of all primes between 1 and A, A+1 is prime if it not divisible by any of the numbers in the list of primes. Start at A = 2 and add primes to the list as they are found. After N recursions, the list will contain all the primes up to N.

## Complexity

This algorithm has a complexity of O(nN), where N is the input number and n is the number of primes up to N. Each recursion tests n numbers, and N recursions are performed, giving O(nN).

However, N ~ n*log(n), giving the final complexity as O(n2*log(n))(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_number_theorem#Approximations_for_the_nth_prime_number)

## Explanation

It's not easy to discern the program flow from the vim commands, so I rewrote it in Python following the same flow. Like the Vim code, the python code will error out when it reaches the end. Python doesn't like too much recursion; if you try this code with N > 150 or so, it will reach the max recursion depth

N = 20
primes = range(2, N+1)

# Python needs these defined.
mark_p = b = a = -1

# Check new number for factors.
# This macro could be wrapped up in @d, but it saves space to leave it separate.
def p():
global mark_d, mark_p, primes, a
mark_d = 0
print(primes)
a = primes[mark_p]
d()

# Checks factor and determine what to do next
def d():
global mark_d, mark_p, a, b, primes
b = primes[mark_d]
if(a == b): # Number is prime, check the next number
mark_p += 1
p()
else:
if(a%b == 0): # Number is not prime, delete it and check next number
del(primes[mark_p])
p()
else: # Number might be prime, try next possible factor
mark_d += 1
d()

mark_p = 0 #Start at first number
p()


Now, to break down the actual keystrokes!

• qpqqdq Clears out the @d and @p registers. This will ensure nothing runs when setting up these recursive macros.

• A^V^Ayyp<Esc>3h"aC@a<Esc>0C1<Esc>@"dd Turns the input into a list of numbers from 2 to N+1. The N+1 entry is deleted as a side effect of setting up the @d macro.

• Specifically, writes a macro that increments a number, then copies it on the next line, then it writes a 1 and executes this macro N times.
• mpqdmd"bywo^Ra ^Rb 0 0 pj@p ^Ra 0 ^R=@a%@b<Enter> pdd@p 0 dj@d<Esc>0*w*wyiWdd@0q writes the @d macro, which implements the d() function above. "If" statements are interesting to implement in Vim. By using the search operator *, it's possible to choose a certain path to follow. Breaking the command down further we get

• mpqd Set the p mark here and start recording the @d macro. The p mark needs to be set so there is a known point to jump to as this runs
• o^Ra ^Rb 0 0 pj@p ^Ra 0 ^R=@a%@b<Enter> pdd@p 0 dj@d<Esc> Writes the if/else statement text
• 0*w*wyiWdd@0 actually executes the if statement.
• Before executing this command, the line will contain @a @b 0 0 pj@p @a 0 (@a%@b) pdd@p 0 dj@d
• 0 moves the cursor to the beginning of the line
• *w*w Moves the cursor to the code to execute next

1. if @a == @b, that is pj@p, which moves to the next number for @a and runs @p on it.
2. if @a != @b and @a%@b == 0, that is pdd@p, which deletes the current number @a, then runs @p on the next one.
3. if @a != @b and @a%%b != 0, that is dj@d, which checks the next number for @b to see if it is a factor of @a
• yiWdd@0 yanks the command into the 0 register, deletes the line and runs the command

• q ends the recording of the @d macro
• When this is first run, the pdd@p command is run, deleting the N+1 line.

• qpmp"aywgg@dq writes the @p macro, which saves the number under the cursor, then goes to the first entry and runs @d on that.

• gg@p actually executes @p so that it will iterate over the whole file.

QBASIC, 98 Chars, Complexity N Sqrt(N), Score 970

I=1
A:I=I+2
FOR J=2 TO I^.5
IF I MOD J=0 THEN GOTO A
NEXT
?I
K=K+1
IF K=1e6 THEN GOTO B
GOTO A
B:

• I've modified the problem statement a bit, its now find first 'n' primes, I am sorry for no notification – Optimus Jun 11 '12 at 8:46
• I suppose we can assume "in-source" input for this program; i.e., the input is the numeral right after the IF K= (so the program length would not include the numeral). As it stands, the program prints the first n primes not including 2, which can be fixed by adding ?2 at the beginning, and changing K=... to K=...-1. The program can also be golfed a bit by taking the spaces out of J=2 TO, J=0 THEN, K=...-1 THEN, and by removing the indenting. I believe this results in a 96-character program. – r.e.s. Jun 17 '12 at 18:54

### Scala 263 characters

Updated to fit to the new requirements. 25% of the code deal with finding a reasonable upper bound to calculate primes below.

object P extends App{
def c(M:Int)={
val p=collection.mutable.BitSet(M+1)
p(2)=true
(3 to M+1 by 2).map(p(_)=true)
for(i<-p){
var j=2*i;
while(j<M){
if(p(j))p(j)=false
j+=i}
}
p
}
val i=args(0).toInt
println(c(((math.log(i)*i*1.3)toInt)).take(i).mkString("\n"))
}


I got a sieve too.

Here is an empirical test of the calculation costs, ungolfed for analysis:

object PrimesTo extends App{
var cnt=0
def c(M:Int)={
val p=(false::false::true::List.range(3,M+1).map(_%2!=0)).toArray
for (i <- List.range (3, M, 2)
if (p (i))) {
var j=2*i;
while (j < M) {
cnt+=1
if (p (j))
p(j)=false
j+=i}
}
(1 to M).filter (x => p (x))
}
val i = args(0).toInt
/*
To get the number x with i primes below, it is nearly ln(x)*x. For small numbers
we need a correction factor 1.13, and to avoid a bigger factor for very small
numbers we add 666 as an upper bound.
*/
val x = (math.log(i)*i*1.13).toInt+666
println (c(x).take (i).mkString("\n"))
System.err.println (x + "\tcount: " + cnt)
}
for n in {1..5} ; do i=$((10**$n)); scala -J-Xmx768M P $i ; done  leads to following counts: List (960, 1766, 15127, 217099, 2988966)  I'm not sure how to calculate the score. Is it worth to write 5 more characters? scala> List(4, 25, 168, 1229, 9592, 78498, 664579, 5761455, 50847534).map(x=>(math.log(x)*x*1.13).toInt+666) res42: List[Int] = List(672, 756, 1638, 10545, 100045, 1000419, 10068909, 101346800, 1019549994) scala> List(4, 25, 168, 1229, 9592, 78498, 664579, 5761455, 50847534).map(x=>(math.log(x)*x*1.3)toInt) res43: List[Int] = List(7, 104, 1119, 11365, 114329, 1150158, 11582935, 116592898, 1172932855)  For bigger n it reduces the calculations by about 16% in that range, but afaik for the score formula, we don't consider constant factors? ### new Big-O considerations: To find 1 000, 10 000, 100 000 primes and so on, I use a formula about the density of primes x=>(math.log(x)*x*1.3 which determines the outer loop I'm running. So for values i in 1 to 6=> NPrimes (10^i) runs 9399, 133768 ... times the outer loop. I found this O-function iteratively with help from the comment of Peter Taylor, who suggested a much higher value for exponentiation, instead of 1.01 he suggested 1.5: def O(n:Int) = (math.pow((n * math.log (n)), 1.01)).toLong  O: (n: Int)Long val ns = List(10, 100, 1000, 10000, 100000, 1000*1000).map(x=>(math.log(x)*x*1.3)toInt).map(O)  ns: List[Long] = List(102, 4152, 91532, 1612894, 25192460, 364664351)  That's the list of upper values, to find primes below (since my algorithm has to know this value before it has to estimate it), send through the O-function, to find similar quotients for moving from 100 to 1000 to 10000 primes and so on: (ns.head /: ns.tail)((a, b) => {println (b*1.0/a); b}) 40.705882352941174 22.045279383429673 17.62109426211598 15.619414543051187 14.47513863274964 13.73425213148954  This are the quotients, if I use 1.01 as exponent. Here is what the counter finds empirically: ns: Array[Int] = Array(1628, 2929, 23583, 321898, 4291625, 54289190, 660847317) (ns.head /: ns.tail)((a, b) => {println (b*1.0/a); b}) 1.799140049140049 8.051553431205189 13.649578085909342 13.332251210010625 12.65003116535112 12.172723833234572  The first two values are outliers, because I have make a constant correction for my estimation formular for small values (up to 1000). With Peter Taylors suggestion of 1.5 it would look like: 245.2396265560166 98.8566987153728 70.8831374743478 59.26104390040363 52.92941829568069 48.956394784317816  Now with my value I get to: O(263) res85: Long = 1576  But I'm unsure, how close I can come with my O-function to the observed values. • Sorry I made some changes to the problem statement to reduce some ambiguity related to complexity, (I am sure your solution wouldn't change much) – Optimus Jun 11 '12 at 8:44 • This is effectively trial division by primes. The number of times through the inner loop is O(M^1.5 / ln M), and each time through you do O(ln M) work (addition), so overall it's O(M^1.5) = O((n ln n)^1.5). – Peter Taylor Jun 13 '12 at 6:44 • With ^1.02 instead of ^1.5 def O(n:Int) = (math.pow((n * math.log (n)), 1.02)).toLong I get much closer to the values, empirically found with my counter. I insert my findings in my post. – user unknown Jun 13 '12 at 8:18 Ruby 66 chars, O(n^2) Score - 4356 lazy is available since Ruby 2.0, and 1.0/0 is a cool trick to get an infinite range: (2..(1.0/0)).lazy.select{|i|!(2...i).any?{|j|i%j==0}}.take(n).to_a  • You can shave one char off by changing it to (2..(1.0/0)).lazy.select{|i|!(2...i).any?{|j|i%j<1}}.take(n).to_a – Qqwy Sep 2 '15 at 5:50 • Or even: (This makes the solution less efficient, but it does not change the upper O(n²) bound) (2..(1.0/0)).lazy.select{|i|(2..i).one?{|j|i%j<1}}.take(n).to_a. This shaves off two more characters. – Qqwy Sep 2 '15 at 5:55 • Well changing it to (2..(1.0/0)).lazy.select{|i|!(2...i).any?{|j|i%j<1}}.first(n) will result in 61 chars. – Richie Feb 21 '18 at 2:40 # Ruby, 84 chars, 84 bytes, score? This one is probably a little too novice for these parts, but I had a fun time doing it. It simply loops until f (primes found) is equal to n, the desired number of primes to be found. The fun part is that for each loop it creates an array from 2 to one less than the number being inspected. Then it maps each element in the array to be the modulus of the original number and the element, and checks to see if any of the results are zero. Also, I have no idea how to score it. ## Update Code compacted and included a (totally arbitrary) value for n n,f,i=5**5,0,2 until f==n;f+=1;p i if !(2...i).to_a.map{|j|i%j}.include?(0);i+=1;end  ## Original f, i = 0, 2 until f == n (f += 1; p i) if !(2...i).to_a.map{|j| i % j}.include?(0) i += 1 end  The i += 1 bit and until loop are sort of jumping out at me as areas for improvement, but on this track I'm sort of stuck. Anyway, it was fun to think about. ## Scala, 124 characters object Q extends App{Stream.from(2).filter(p=>(2 to p)takeWhile(i=>i*i<=p)forall{p%_!= 0})take(args(0)toInt)foreach println}  Simple trial division up to square root. Complexity therefore should be O(n^(1.5+epsilon)) 124^1.5 < 1381, so that would be my score i guess? ## Perl - 94 characters, O(n log(n)) - Score: 427 perl -wle '$n=1;$t=1;while($n<$ARGV[0]){$t++;if((1x$t)!~/^1?$|^(11+?)\1+$/){print$t;$n++;}}'  ## Python - 113 characters import re z = int(input()) n=1 t=1 while n<z: t+=1 if not re.match(r'^1?$|^(11+?)\1+$',"1"*t): print t n+=1  # AWK, 96 86 bytes Subtitle: Look Mom! Only adding and some bookkeeping! File fsoe3.awk: {for(n=2;l<$1;){if(n in L)p=L[n]
else{print p=n;l++}
for(N=p+n++;N in L;)N+=p
L[N]=p}}


Run:

$awk -f fsoe3.awk <<< 5 2 3 5 7 11$ awk -f fsoe3.awk <<< 1000 | wc -l
1000


# BASH, 133 bytes

File x.bash:

a=2
while((l<$1));do if((b[a])) then((c=b[a]));else((c=a,l++));echo$a;fi;((d=a+c))
while((b[d]));do((d+=c));done
((b[d]=c,a++));done


Run:

$bash x.bash 5 2 3 5 7 11$ bash x.bash 1000 | wc -l
1000


Primes get calculated by letting the already found primes jump on the "tape of positive integers". Basically it is a serialised Sieve Of Eratosthenes.

from time import time as t

L = {}
n = 2
l = 0

t0=t()

while l<1000000:

if n in L:
P = L[n]
else:
P = n
l += 1
print t()-t0

m = n+P
while m in L:
m += P
L[m] = P

n += 1


...is the same algorithm in Python and prints out the time when the l-th prime was found instead of the prime itself.

The output plotted with gnuplot yields the following:

The jumps probably have something to do with file i/o delays due to writing buffered data to disk...

Using much larger numbers of primes to find, will bring additional system dependent delays into the game, e.g. the array representing the "tape of positive integers" grows continuously and sooner or later will make every computer cry for more RAM (or later swap).

...so getting an idea of the complexity by looking at the experimental data does not really help a lot... :-(

Now counting the additions needed to find n primes:

cells = {}
current = 2
found = 0

while found < 10000000:

if current in cells:
candidate = cells[current]
del cells[current] # the seen part is irrelevant
else:
candidate = current
found += 1 ; additons += 1

destination = current + candidate ; additons += 1
while destination in cells:
destination += candidate ; additons += 1
cells[destination] = candidate

current += 1 ; additons += 1


• How'd you make those graphs? – cat Oct 18 '16 at 15:22
• Gnuplot with set term xterm and then screenshot of xterm's graphics-window (probably a near to forgotten feature). ;-) – yeti Oct 19 '16 at 9:44

## Scala 121 (99 without the Main class boilerplate)

object Q extends App{Stream.from(2).filter{a=>Range(2,a).filter(a%_==0).isEmpty}.take(readLine().toInt).foreach(println)}


# Python 3, 117 106 bytes

This solution is slightly trivial, as it outputs 0 where a number is not prime, but I'll post it anyway:

r=range
for i in[2]+[i*(not 0 in[i%j for j in r(3,int(i**0.5)+1,2)])for i in r(3,int(input()),2)]:print(i)


Also, I'm not sure how to work out the complexity of an algorithm. Please don't downvote because of this. Instead, be nice and comment how I could work it out. Also, tell me how I could shorten this.

• I think you can put the print(i) on the same line as the for loop and remove the spaces at in [2], 0 if, 0 in [i%j and +1,2)] else. – acrolith Oct 12 '16 at 17:03
• @daHugLenny Wow, thanks so much! I'll edit my post in a sec. :-D – 0WJYxW9FMN Oct 12 '16 at 17:07
• @daHugLenny Would you know how to calculate efficiency by any chance? – 0WJYxW9FMN Oct 12 '16 at 17:23
• No, sorry. (Comments have to be at least 15 chars long) – acrolith Oct 12 '16 at 17:30
• Thanks anyway. You've made my program the shortest one here! – 0WJYxW9FMN Oct 12 '16 at 17:58

52takeData.List.nubBy(((1<).).gcd)[2..]forM_print


## Perl 6, 152 bytes, O(n log n log (n log n) log (log (n log n))) (?), 9594.79 points

According to this page, the bit complexity of finding all primes up to n is O(n log n log log n); the complexity above uses the fact that the nth prime is proportional to n log n.

my \N=+slurp;my \P=N*(N.log+N.log.log);my @a=1 xx P;for 2..P.sqrt ->$i {if @a[$i] {@a[$_*$i]=0 for $i..P/$i}};say \$_[1] for (@a Z ^P).grep(*[0])[2..N+1]

• does not qualify, do it in Wentel to qualify – noɥʇʎԀʎzɐɹƆ Oct 14 '16 at 20:20
• Pardon, but what do you mean? – bb94 Oct 15 '16 at 22:40
• for the bounty (fiiiiiiiiilerrrrr) – noɥʇʎԀʎzɐɹƆ Oct 15 '16 at 22:52

# Groovy (50 Bytes) - O(n*sqrt(n)) - Score 353.553390593

{[1,2]+(1..it).findAll{x->(2..x**0.5).every{x%it}}​}​


Takes in n and outputs all numbers from 1 to n which are prime.

The algorithm I chose only outputs primes n > 2, so adding 1,2 at the beginning is required.

## Breakdown

x%it - Implicit truthy if it is not divisible, falsy if it is.

(2..x**0.5).every{...} - For all the values between 2 and sqrt(x) ensure that they are not divisible, for this to return true, must return true for every.

(1..it).findAll{x->...} - For all values between 1 and n, find all that fit the criteria of being non-divisible between 2 and sqrt(n).

{[1,2]+...}​ - Add 1 and 2, because they are always prime and never covered by algorithm.

## Racket 155 bytes

(let p((o'(2))(c 3))(cond[(>=(length o)n)(reverse o)][(ormap(λ(x)(= 0(modulo c x)))


It keeps a list of prime numbers found and checks divisibility of each next number by primes already found. Moreover, it checks only upto the square root of number being tested since that is enough.

Ungolfed:

(define(nprimes n)
(let loop ((outl '(2))                   ; outlist having primes being created
(current 3))                  ; current number being tested
(cond
[(>= (length outl) n) (reverse outl)]  ; if n primes found, print outlist.
[(ormap (λ(x) (= 0 (modulo current x))) ; test if divisible by any previously found prime
(filter                         ; filter outlist till sqrt of current number
(λ(x) (<= x (sqrt current)))
outl))
(loop outl (add1 current)) ]           ; goto next number without adding to prime list
[else (loop (cons current outl) (add1 current))] ; add to prime list and go to next number
)))


Testing:

(nprimes 35)


Output:

'(2 3 5 7 11 13 17 19 23 29 31 37 41 43 47 53 59 61 67 71 73 79 83 89 97 101 103 107 109 113 127 131 137 139 149)


awk 45 (complexity N^2)

another awk, for primes up to 100 use like this

awk '{for(i=2;i<=sqrt(NR);i++) if(!(NR%i)) next} NR>1' <(seq 100)


code golf counted part is

{for(i=2;i<=sqrt(NR);i++)if(!(NR%i))next}NR>1


which can be put in a script file and run as awk -f prime.awk <(seq 100)

## Javascript, 61 chars

f=(n,p=2,i=2)=>p%i?f(n,p,++i):i==p&&n--&alert(p)||n&&f(n,++p)
`

A bit worse than O(n^2), will run out of stack space for large n.