Source code for BigFactorial.java

/*
 * This work by W. Patrick Hooper is free of known copyright restrictions.
 * The work is in the public domain.
 * 
 * Author's website: <a href="http://wphooper.com">http://wphooper.com</a>. 
 */

// This line allows us to use the java.math.BigInteger class
// under the name BigInteger.
import java.math.BigInteger;

/**
 * Compute n! for arbitrarily large n.
 */
public class BigFactorial {

    /** return n factorial. */
    public static BigInteger factorial(int n) {
        // We will compute n factorial via the formula
        // n!=1*2*3*4*5*...

        // Construct a big integer with a value of 1.
        BigInteger factorial=BigInteger.valueOf(1);
        
        // iterate over the values i=1,...,n. 
        for (int i=1; i<=n; i++) {
            // Convert each i to a BigInteger, then multiply factorial by it.
            factorial=factorial.multiply(BigInteger.valueOf(i));
        }
        
        return factorial;
    }
    
    /** Print n!, where n is the first command line argument.
     */
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        int n=Integer.parseInt(args[0]);
        System.out.println(""+n+"! = "+factorial(n));
    }

}

Last modified on August 17, 2018.