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Divisibility

Authors: Darren Yao, Michael Cao, Andi Qu, Kevin Sheng

Contributor: Juheon Rhee

Using the information that one integer evenly divides another.

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Prime Factorization

A positive integer aa is called a divisor or a factor of a non-negative integer bb if bb is divisible by aa, which means that there exists some integer kk such that b=kab = ka. An integer n>1n > 1 is prime if its only divisors are 11 and nn. Integers greater than 11 that are not prime are composite.

Every positive integer has a unique prime factorization: a way of decomposing it into a product of primes, as follows:

n=p1a1p2a2pkakn = {p_1}^{a_1} {p_2}^{a_2} \cdots {p_k}^{a_k}

where the pip_i are distinct primes and the aia_i are positive integers.

Now, we will discuss how to find the prime factorization of any positive integer.

C++

vector<int> factor(int n) {
vector<int> ret;
for (int i = 2; i * i <= n; i++) {
while (n % i == 0) {
ret.push_back(i);
n /= i;
}
}
if (n > 1) { ret.push_back(n); }
return ret;
}

Java

List<Integer> factor(int n) {
List<Integer> factors = new ArrayList<>();
for (int i = 2; i * i <= n; i++) {
while (n % i == 0) {
factors.add(i);
n /= i;
}
}
if (n > 1) { factors.add(n); }
return factors;
}

Python

from typing import List
def factor(n: int) -> List[int]:
ret = []
i = 2
while i * i <= n:
while n % i == 0:
ret.append(i)
n //= i
i += 1
if n > 1:
ret.append(n)
return ret

This algorithm runs in O(n)\mathcal{O}(\sqrt{n}) time, because the for loop checks divisibility for at most n\sqrt{n} values. Even though there is a while loop inside the for loop, dividing nn by ii quickly reduces the value of nn, which means that the outer for loop runs less iterations, which actually speeds up the code.

Let's look at an example of how this algorithm works, for n=252n = 252.

iinnret\texttt{ret}
22252252{}\{\}
22126126{2}\{2\}
226363{2,2}\{2, 2\}
332121{2,2,3}\{2, 2, 3\}
3377{2,2,3,3}\{2, 2, 3, 3\}

At this point, the for loop terminates, because ii is already 3 which is greater than 7\lfloor \sqrt{7} \rfloor. In the last step, we add 77 to the list of factors vv, because it otherwise won't be added, for a final prime factorization of {2,2,3,3,7}\{2, 2, 3, 3, 7\}.

Focus Problem – try your best to solve this problem before continuing!

Solution - Counting Divisors

The most straightforward solution is just to do what the problem asks us to do - for each xx, find the number of divisors of xx in O(x)\mathcal{O}(\sqrt x) time.

C++

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main() {
int n;
cin >> n;
for (int q = 0; q < n; q++) {
int x;
int div_num = 0;

Java

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
public class Divisors {
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
BufferedReader read =
new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
int queryNum = Integer.parseInt(read.readLine());
StringBuilder ans = new StringBuilder();

Python

Warning!

Due to Python's big constant factor, the following code TLEs on quite a few test cases.

ans = []
for _ in range(int(input())):
div_num = 0
x = int(input())
i = 1
while i * i <= x:
if x % i == 0:
div_num += 1 if i**2 == x else 2
i += 1
ans.append(div_num)
print("\n".join(str(i) for i in ans))

This solution runs in O(nx)\mathcal{O}(n \sqrt x) time, which is just fast enough to get AC. However, we can actually speed this up to get an O((x+n)logx)\mathcal{O}((x + n) \log x) solution!

First, let's discuss an important property of the prime factorization. Consider:

x=p1a1p2a2pkakx = {p_1}^{a_1} {p_2}^{a_2} \cdots {p_k}^{a_k}

Then the number of divisors of xx is simply (a1+1)(a2+1)(ak+1)(a_1 + 1) \cdot (a_2 + 1) \cdots (a_k + 1).

Why is this true? The exponent of pip_i in any divisor of xx must be in the range [0,ai][0, a_i] and each different exponent results in a different set of divisors, so each pip_i contributes ai+1a_i + 1 to the product.

xx can have O(logx)\mathcal{O}(\log x) distinct prime factors, so if we can find the prime factorization of xx efficiently, we can use it with the above property to answer queries in O(logx)\mathcal{O}(\log x) time instead of the previous O(x)\mathcal{O}(\sqrt x) time.

Here's how we find the prime factorization of xx in O(logx)\mathcal{O}(\log x) time with O(xlogx)\mathcal{O}(x \log x) preprocessing:

  1. For each k106k \leq 10^6, find any prime number that divides kk. To find this, we can use the Sieve of Eratosthenes which runs in O(nlogn)\mathcal{O}(n \log n), where nn is the larger numbers we consider. There's also a version of the sieve that runs in linear time, but we won't be needing it.
  2. We can find the prime factorization of xx by repeatedly dividing it by the prime numbers we calculated earlier until x=1x = 1.

Using this method gives us the following code:

C++

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
const int MAX_N = 1e6;
// max_div[i] contains the largest prime that goes into i
int max_div[MAX_N + 1];
int main() {
for (int i = 2; i <= MAX_N; i++) {

Java

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
public class Divisors {
private static final int MAX_N = (int)Math.pow(10, 6);
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
// maxDiv[i] contains the largest prime that can divide i
int[] maxDiv = new int[MAX_N + 1];
for (int i = 2; i <= MAX_N; i++) {

Python

MAX_N = 10**6
# max_div[i] contains the largest prime that can go into i
max_div = [0 for _ in range(MAX_N + 1)]
for i in range(2, MAX_N + 1):
if max_div[i] == 0:
for j in range(i, MAX_N + 1, i):
max_div[j] = i
ans = []

GCD & LCM

GCD

The greatest common divisor (GCD) of two integers aa and bb is the largest integer that is a factor of both aa and bb. In order to find the GCD of two non-negative integers, we use the Euclidean Algorithm, which is as follows:

gcd(a,b)={ab=0gcd(b,amodb)b0\gcd(a, b) = \begin{cases} a & b = 0 \\ \gcd(b, a \bmod b) & b \neq 0 \end{cases}

This algorithm can be implemented with a recursive function as follows:

Java

public int gcd(int a, int b) { return b == 0 ? a : gcd(b, a % b); }

C++

int gcd(int a, int b) { return b == 0 ? a : gcd(b, a % b); }

For C++14, you can use the built-in __gcd(a,b).

In C++17, there exists std::gcd and std::lcm in the <numeric> header, so there's no need to code your own GCD and LCM if you're using that version.

Python

def gcd(a: int, b: int) -> int:
return a if b == 0 else gcd(b, a % b)

You won't have to actually implement this in-contest, as the built-in math library has a gcd and lcm function.

This function runs in O(logab)\mathcal{O}(\log ab) time because ab    b(moda)<b2a\le b \implies b\pmod a <\frac{b}{2}.

The worst-case scenario for the Euclidean algorithm is when aa and bb are consecutive Fibonacci numbers FnF_n and Fn+1F_{n + 1}. In this case, the algorithm will calculate that gcd(Fn,Fn+1)=gcd(Fn1,Fn)==gcd(0,F1)\gcd(F_n, F_{n + 1}) = \gcd(F_{n - 1}, F_n) = \dots = \gcd(0, F_1). This takes a total of n+1n+1 calls, which is proportional to log(FnFn+1)\log \left(F_n F_{n+1}\right).

LCM

The least common multiple (LCM) of two integers aa and bb is the smallest integer divisible by both aa and bb. The LCM can be calculated with the GCD using this property:

lcm(a,b)=abgcd(a,b)\operatorname{lcm}(a, b) = \frac{a \cdot b}{\gcd(a, b)}

Warning!

Coding lcm\text{lcm} as a * b / gcd(a, b) might cause integer overflow if the value of a * b is greater than the max size of the data type of a * b (e.g. the max size of int in C++ and Java is around 2 billion). Dividng a by gcd(a, b) first, then multiplying it by b will prevent integer overflow if the result fits in an int.

Also, these two functions are associative, meaning that if we want to take the GCD or LCM of more than two elements, we can do so two at a time, in any order. For example,

gcd(a1,a2,a3,a4)=gcd(a1,gcd(a2,gcd(a3,a4))).\gcd(a_1, a_2, a_3, a_4) = \gcd(a_1, \gcd(a_2, \gcd(a_3, a_4))).

Problems

StatusSourceProblem NameDifficultyTags
ACEasy
Show TagsPrime Factorization
CFEasy
Show TagsDivisibility, Modular Arithmetic
KilonovaNormal
Show TagsMath, Prime Factorization
CFEasy
Show TagsNT
CFEasy
Show TagsDivisibility
CSESNormal
CFNormal
Show TagsPrime Factorization
CCNormal
Show TagsDivisibility
CSESHard
CFHard
Show TagsDivisibility

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