Approximation of e

Question

We all know that the Euler's number, denoted by \$e\$, to the power of some variable \$x\$, can be approximated by using the Maclaurin Series expansion:

$$e^x=\sum_{k=0}^{\infty}{\frac{x^k}{k!}}=1+x+\frac{x^2}{2!}+\frac{x^3}{3!}+\frac{x^4}{4!}+\dots$$

By letting \$x\$ equal \$1\$, we obtain

$$\sum_{k=0}^{\infty}{\frac{1}{k!}{=\frac{1}{0!}+\frac{1}{1!}+\frac{1}{2!}+\frac{1}{3!}+\frac{1}{4!}+\dots\\=1+1+\frac{1}{2}+\frac{1}{6}+\frac{1}{24}+\dots}}$$

Challenge

Write a program in any language which approximates Euler's number by taking in an input \$n\$ and calculates the series to the \$n\$th term. Note that the first term has denominator \$0!\$, not \$1!\$, i.e. \$n=1\$ corresponds to \$\frac{1}{0!}\$.

Scoring

Program with least amount of bytes wins.

Answer 1

Wistful-C - 336 bytes

My first real wistful- program! There is actually a little golfing I did, with using someday instead of wait for because the first had a shorter length.

if only <stdio.h> were included...
if only int f were 1...
if only int N were 0...
wish for "%d",&N upon a star
if only int i were 0...
if only double e were 0...
someday i will be N...
        if only e were e+1./f...
        if only i were i+1...
        if only f were f*i...
*sigh*
wish "%f\n",e upon a star
if wishes were horses...

Answer 2

Jelly, 5 bytes

R’!İS

Try it online!

How it works

R’!İS  Main link. Argument: n

R      Yield the range [1, ..., n].
 ’     Map decrement over the list.
  !    Map factorial over the list.
   İ   Map inverse over the list.
    S  Compute the sum.

Answer 3

Pyth, 7 6 bytes

smc1.!

Try it here.

 m      map over range 0..input:
    .!  factorial
  c1    1 / ^
s       sum

Thanks to FryAmTheEggman for a byte!

Answer 4

TI-84 BASIC, 12 15 14

Input N
Σ(A!⁻¹,A,0,N

TI is a tokenized language (bytes are counted via tokens, not individual characters).

Answer 5

Julia 0.6, 28 27 21 bytes

n->sum(1./gamma(1:n))

Try it online!

This is an anonymous function that accepts an integer and returns a float. To call it, assign it to a variable.

The approach is quite straightforward. We sum 1 divided by the gamma function evaluated at each of 1 through n. This takes advantage of the property n! = Γ(n+1).

Saved 1 byte thanks to Dennis and 6 thanks to Glen O!

Answer 6

Python, 36 bytes

Python 2:

f=lambda n,i=1:n/i and 1.+f(n,i+1)/i

Python 3:

f=lambda n,i=1:i<=n and 1+f(n,i+1)/i

Answer 7

dc, 43 bytes

[d1-d1<f*]sf[dlfx1r/r1-d1<e+]se1?dk1-d1<e+p

This is a fairly direct translation of the series. I tried to be cleverer, but that resulted in longer code.

Explanation

[d1-d1<f*]sf

A simple factorial function, for n>0

[dlfx1r/r1-d1<e+]se

Execute the factorial for n,...,1; invert and sum

1?dk1-

Prime the stack with 1; accept input and set an appropriate precision

d1<e+

If input was 0 or 1, we can just pass it on, else compute the partial sum.

p

Print the result.

Test results

The first 100 expansions:

0
1
2
2.500
2.6666
2.70832
2.716665
2.7180553
2.71825394
2.718278766
2.7182815251
2.71828180110
2.718281826194
2.7182818282857
2.71828182844671
2.718281828458223
2.7182818284589936
2.71828182845904216
2.718281828459045062
2.7182818284590452257
2.71828182845904523484
2.718281828459045235331
2.7182818284590452353584
2.71828182845904523536012
2.718281828459045235360273
2.7182818284590452353602862
2.71828182845904523536028736
2.718281828459045235360287457
2.7182818284590452353602874700
2.71828182845904523536028747123
2.718281828459045235360287471339
2.7182818284590452353602874713514
2.71828182845904523536028747135253
2.718281828459045235360287471352649
2.7182818284590452353602874713526606
2.71828182845904523536028747135266232
2.718281828459045235360287471352662481
2.7182818284590452353602874713526624964
2.71828182845904523536028747135266249759
2.718281828459045235360287471352662497738
2.7182818284590452353602874713526624977552
2.71828182845904523536028747135266249775705
2.718281828459045235360287471352662497757231
2.7182818284590452353602874713526624977572453
2.71828182845904523536028747135266249775724691
2.718281828459045235360287471352662497757247074
2.7182818284590452353602874713526624977572470919
2.71828182845904523536028747135266249775724709352
2.718281828459045235360287471352662497757247093683
2.7182818284590452353602874713526624977572470936984
2.71828182845904523536028747135266249775724709369978
2.718281828459045235360287471352662497757247093699940
2.7182818284590452353602874713526624977572470936999574
2.71828182845904523536028747135266249775724709369995936
2.718281828459045235360287471352662497757247093699959554
2.7182818284590452353602874713526624977572470936999595729
2.71828182845904523536028747135266249775724709369995957475
2.718281828459045235360287471352662497757247093699959574944
2.7182818284590452353602874713526624977572470936999595749646
2.71828182845904523536028747135266249775724709369995957496673
2.718281828459045235360287471352662497757247093699959574966943
2.7182818284590452353602874713526624977572470936999595749669652
2.71828182845904523536028747135266249775724709369995957496696740
2.718281828459045235360287471352662497757247093699959574966967601
2.7182818284590452353602874713526624977572470936999595749669676254
2.71828182845904523536028747135266249775724709369995957496696762747
2.718281828459045235360287471352662497757247093699959574966967627699
2.7182818284590452353602874713526624977572470936999595749669676277220
2.71828182845904523536028747135266249775724709369995957496696762772386
2.718281828459045235360287471352662497757247093699959574966967627724050
2.7182818284590452353602874713526624977572470936999595749669676277240739
2.71828182845904523536028747135266249775724709369995957496696762772407632
2.718281828459045235360287471352662497757247093699959574966967627724076601
2.7182818284590452353602874713526624977572470936999595749669676277240766277
2.71828182845904523536028747135266249775724709369995957496696762772407663006
2.718281828459045235360287471352662497757247093699959574966967627724076630325
2.7182818284590452353602874713526624977572470936999595749669676277240766303508
2.71828182845904523536028747135266249775724709369995957496696762772407663035328
2.718281828459045235360287471352662497757247093699959574966967627724076630353518
2.7182818284590452353602874713526624977572470936999595749669676277240766303535449
2.71828182845904523536028747135266249775724709369995957496696762772407663035354729
2.718281828459045235360287471352662497757247093699959574966967627724076630353547565
2.7182818284590452353602874713526624977572470936999595749669676277240766303535475915
2.71828182845904523536028747135266249775724709369995957496696762772407663035354759429
2.718281828459045235360287471352662497757247093699959574966967627724076630353547594542
2.7182818284590452353602874713526624977572470936999595749669676277240766303535475945681
2.71828182845904523536028747135266249775724709369995957496696762772407663035354759457111
2.718281828459045235360287471352662497757247093699959574966967627724076630353547594571352
2.7182818284590452353602874713526624977572470936999595749669676277240766303535475945713792
2.71828182845904523536028747135266249775724709369995957496696762772407663035354759457138185
2.718281828459045235360287471352662497757247093699959574966967627724076630353547594571382143
2.7182818284590452353602874713526624977572470936999595749669676277240766303535475945713821752
2.71828182845904523536028747135266249775724709369995957496696762772407663035354759457138217826
2.718281828459045235360287471352662497757247093699959574966967627724076630353547594571382178492
2.7182818284590452353602874713526624977572470936999595749669676277240766303535475945713821785218
2.71828182845904523536028747135266249775724709369995957496696762772407663035354759457138217852481
2.718281828459045235360287471352662497757247093699959574966967627724076630353547594571382178525131
2.7182818284590452353602874713526624977572470936999595749669676277240766303535475945713821785251635
2.71828182845904523536028747135266249775724709369995957496696762772407663035354759457138217852516607
2.718281828459045235360287471352662497757247093699959574966967627724076630353547594571382178525166394

Using 1000 terms:

2.7182818284590452353602874713526624977572470936999595749669676277240\
766303535475945713821785251664274274663919320030599218174135966290435\
729003342952605956307381323286279434907632338298807531952510190115738\
341879307021540891499348841675092447614606680822648001684774118537423\
454424371075390777449920695517027618386062613313845830007520449338265\
602976067371132007093287091274437470472306969772093101416928368190255\
151086574637721112523897844250569536967707854499699679468644549059879\
316368892300987931277361782154249992295763514822082698951936680331825\
288693984964651058209392398294887933203625094431173012381970684161403\
970198376793206832823764648042953118023287825098194558153017567173613\
320698112509961818815930416903515988885193458072738667385894228792284\
998920868058257492796104841984443634632449684875602336248270419786232\
090021609902353043699418491463140934317381436405462531520961836908887\
070167683964243781405927145635490613031072085103837505101157477041718\
986106873969655212671546889570350116

Answer 8

J, 10 bytes

[:+/%@!@i.

Straight-forward approach.

Explanation

[:+/%@!@i.    Input: n
        i.    Creates the range [0, 1, ..., n-1]
      !@      Maps factorial to each
    %@        Map 1/x to each
[:+/          Take the sum of the values and return it

Answer 9

CJam, 11

r~,:m!Wf#:+

or

r~{m!W#}%:+

Try it online: first version and second version

Explanation:

r~ = read and evaluate
m! = factorial
W# = raise to the -1 power (W = -1)
:+ = sum of array
First version constructs the [0…N-1] array and applies factorial and inverse to all its elements; 2nd version does factorial and inverse for each number then puts them in an array.

Answer 10

JavaScript ES6, 44 42 40

n=>{for(k=s=m=1;m<n;s+=k/=m++);return s}

An unnamed function now.

Thanks for saving 2 bytes @AlexA and thanks to @LeakyNun for another 2 bytes!

Answer 11

MATL, 11 7 bytes

:Ygl_^s

4 bytes saved thanks to @Luis's recommendation to use gamma (Yg)

Try it Online

Explanation

        % Implicitly grab input (N)
:       % Create an array from 1...N
Yg      % Compute factorial(x-1) for each element (x) in the array
l_^     % Take the inverse
s       % Sum all elements
        % Implicitly display the result

Answer 12

MATL, 6 bytes

q_t1Zh

This computes the sum using the hypergeometric function ₁F₁(a;b;z):

Works on Octave and on the online compiler, but not on Matlab, due to a difference in how the hypergeometric function is defined (which will be corrected).

Try it online!

Explanation

q_    % Take N implicitly. Compute -N+1
t     % Duplicate
1     % Push 1
Zh    % Hypergeometric function 1F1(-N+1;-N+1;1). Implicitly display

Answer 13

C, 249 bytes

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#define z double
z f(z x){z r=1;z n=1;while(x>0){r*=n;n++;x--;}return r;}int main(int argc, char **argv){z e=0;z p=0;z d=0;p=strtod(argv[1],NULL);while(p>0){e+=1.0d/f(d);printf("%.10f\n",e);p--;d++;}return 0;}

Ungolfed:

/* approximate e */

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

double fact(double x){
    double result = 1;
    double num = 1;

    while (x > 0){
        result *= num;
        num++;
        x--;
    }
    return result;
}

int main(int argc, char **argv){
    double e = 0;
    double precision = 0;
    double denom = 0;

    precision = strtod(argv[1], NULL);
    while (precision > 0){
        e += 1.0d / fact(denom);
        printf("%.10f\n", e);
        precision--;
        denom++;
    }
    return 0;
}

Takes a number as an argument to determine number of iterations.

Answer 14

APL (Dyalog Unicode), 5 bytes

⍳⊥⊢÷!

Try it online!

Using the mixed base trick found in my answer of another challenge. Uses ⎕IO←0.

How it works

⍳⊥⊢÷!  Right argument: n, the number of terms
  ⊢÷!  v: 1÷(n-1)!
⍳      B: The array of 0 .. n-1
 ⊥     Expand v to length-n array V,
       then mixed base conversion of V in base B

Base | Digit | Value
--------------------
0    | v     | v×(1×2×..×(n-1)) = 1÷0!
1    | v     | v×(2×3×..×(n-1)) = 1÷1!
2    | v     | v×(3×..×(n-1))   = 1÷2!
..   | ..    | ..
n-2  | v     | v×(n-1)          = 1÷(n-2)!
n-1  | v     | v                = 1÷(n-1)!

Answer 15

k (13 bytes)

Subject to overflows for N>20

{+/%*\1,1+!x}

Answer 16

05AB1E, 6 bytes

$L<!/O

Explained

$           # push 1 and input: N = 5
 L<         # range [0..N-1]: [0,1,2,3,4]
   !        # factorial over range [1,1,2,6,24]
    /       # divide 1/range: [1.0, 1.0, 0.5, 0.16666666666666666, 0.041666666666666664]
     O      # sum: 2.708333333333333

Try it online

Answer 17

Pyke, 10 bytes

FSBQi^R/)s

Try it here!

Or 8 bytes if power=1

FSB1R/)s

Try it here!

Answer 18

JavaScript (ES6), 28 bytes

f=(n,i=1)=>n&&1+f(n-1,i+1)/i

Answer 19

Dyalog APL, 6 bytes

+/÷!⍳⎕

+/ sum of
÷ the reciprocals of
! the factorials of
⍳ the numbers from 0 to
⎕ numerical input

Assumes ⎕IO←0, which is default on many systems.

TryAPL!

Answer 20

Haskell, 37 bytes

((scanl(+)0$(1/)<$>scanl(*)1[1..])!!)

Not the shortest, but arguably the prettiest.

---

Also courtesy of Laikoni, here is a solution that is 2 bytes shorter:

sum.(`take`((1/)<$>scanl(*)1[1..]))

---

λ> let f = ((scanl (+) 0 $ (1/) <$> scanl (*) 1 [1..]) !!)

λ> map f [1..5]
[1.0,2.0,2.5,2.6666666666666665,2.708333333333333]

λ> f 10
2.7182815255731922

λ> f 100
2.7182818284590455

λ> log (f 10)
0.9999998885745155

λ> log (f 100)
1.0

Answer 21

jq, 25 bytes

[range(.)+1|1/tgamma]|add

Try it online!

jq currently only has IEEE754 double-precision (64-bit) floating point number support, luckily it works in its favour here.

Answer 22

Raku, 21 19 bytes

{1+sum [\/] 1..^$_}

Try it online!

-2 bytes thanks to Jo King

[\/] performs a "triangular reduction" (or "scan") using the division operator over the sequence 1, 2, ..., $_-1 (where $_ is the argument to the function). So for example [\/] 1..4 is the sequence 1, 1/2, 1/2/3, 1/2/3/4, which are the terms required for the n = 5 case.

Answer 23

Actually, 6 bytes

r♂!♂ìΣ

Try it online!

Explanation:

r♂!♂ìΣ
r       range(N) ([0, N-1])
 ♂!     factorial of each element
   ♂ì   reciprocal of each element
     Σ  sum

Answer 24

Brachylog, 18 bytes

:1-:0r:ef:$!a:/a+.

Explanation

:1-                 Subtract 1 from Input
   :0r              Create the list [0, Input - 1]
      :ef           Find all integers between 0 and Input - 1
         :$!a       Apply factorial to each member of that list
             :/a    Apply inverse to each element of that list
                +.  Unify the output with the sum of the list

Answer 25

Maple, 18

add(1/i!,i=0..n-1)

Usage:

> f:=n->add(1/i!,i=0..n-1);
> f(1);
  1
> f(4);
  8/3

Answer 26

C, 69 bytes

double f(int n){double s=1,f=1;for(int i=0;i++<n;s+=f)f/=i;return s;}

Ideone it!

Answer 27

Java with Ten Foot Laser Pole, 238 236 bytes

import sj224.tflp.math.*;interface U{static void main(String[]a){BigRational r=null,s,t;r=s=t=r.ONE;for(int n=new java.util.Scanner(System.in).nextInt()-1;n-->0;){t=t.multiply(r);s=s.add(t.pow(-1));r=r.add(r.ONE);}System.out.print(s);}}

Has much better overflow resistance than most of the other answers. For 100 terms, the result is

31710869445015912176908843526535027555643447320787267779096898248431156738548305814867560678144006224158425966541000436701189187481211772088720561290395499/11665776930493019085212404857033337561339496033047702683574120486902199999153739451117682997019564785781712240103402969781398151364608000000000000000000000

Answer 28

Julia 0.6, 28 bytes

~k=k<1?1:1/gamma(k+1)+~(k-1)

Try it online!

Explanation

~k=                    #Define ~ to be
    k<1                #If k is less than 1
        ?1             #to be one
        :1/gamma(k+1)  #else add the reciprocal factorial to 
            +~(k-1)    #the function applied to the predecessor value

gamma(k+1) is equal to factorial(k) for positive integer inputs, and generalizes it for all values other than the nonnegative integers. It saves one byte, so why not use it?

Answer 29

PowerShell Core, 51 43 bytes

param($a)++$p..$a-ge1|%{$s+=$p/=$_}
$s+!!$a

Try it online!

-6 bytes thanks to mazzy! -2 bytes thanks to Zaelin Goodman!

Answer 30

Thunno 2 S, 3 bytes

LwỊ

Try it online!

Explanation

LwỊ  # Implicit input
L    # Lowered range
 w   # Factorial
  Ị  # Reciprocal
     # Sum
     # Implicit output