How to find GCD, LCM on a set of numbers

Question

What would be the easiest way to calculate Greatest Common Divisor and Least Common Multiple on a set of numbers? What math functions can be used to find this information?

Answer 1

import java.util.Scanner; public class Lcmhcf {

/**
 * @param args the command line arguments
 */
public static void main(String[] args) {
    // TODO code application logic here
    Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
    int n1,n2,x,y,lcm,hcf;
    System.out.println("Enter any 2 numbers....");
    n1=scan.nextInt();
    n2=scan.nextInt();
    x=n1;
    y=n2;

    do{
       if(n1>n2){
         n1=n1-n2;
       }
       else{
         n2=n2-n1;
       }
     } while(n1!=n2);
     hcf=n1;
     lcm=x*y/hcf;
     System.out.println("HCF IS = "+hcf);
     System.out.println("LCM IS = "+lcm);

     }
 }
//## Heading ##By Rajeev Lochan Sen

Answer 2

int gcf(int a, int b)
{
    while (a != b) // while the two numbers are not equal...
    { 
        // ...subtract the smaller one from the larger one

        if (a > b) a -= b; // if a is larger than b, subtract b from a
        else b -= a; // if b is larger than a, subtract a from b
    }

    return a; // or return b, a will be equal to b either way
}

int lcm(int a, int b)
{
    // the lcm is simply (a * b) divided by the gcf of the two

    return (a * b) / gcf(a, b);
}

Answer 3

With Java 8, there are more elegant and functional ways to solve this.

LCM:

private static int lcm(int numberOne, int numberTwo) {
    final int bigger = Math.max(numberOne, numberTwo);
    final int smaller = Math.min(numberOne, numberTwo);

    return IntStream.rangeClosed(1,smaller)
                    .filter(factor -> (factor * bigger) % smaller == 0)
                    .map(factor -> Math.abs(factor * bigger))
                    .findFirst()
                    .getAsInt();
}

GCD:

private static int gcd(int numberOne, int numberTwo) {
    return (numberTwo == 0) ? numberOne : gcd(numberTwo, numberOne % numberTwo);
}

Of course if one argument is 0, both methods will not work.

Answer 4

import java.util.Scanner;
public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
        int n0 = input.nextInt(); // number of intended input.
        int [] MyList = new int [n0];

        for (int i = 0; i < n0; i++)
            MyList[i] = input.nextInt();
            //input values stored in an array
        int i = 0;
        int count = 0;
            int gcd = 1; // Initial gcd is 1
            int k = 2; // Possible gcd
            while (k <= MyList[i] && k <= MyList[i]) {
                if (MyList[i] % k == 0 && MyList[i] % k == 0)
                    gcd = k; // Update gcd
                k++;
                count++; //checking array for gcd
            }
           // int i = 0;
            MyList [i] = gcd;
            for (int e: MyList) {
                System.out.println(e);

            }

            }

        }

Answer 5

for gcd you cad do as below:

    String[] ss = new Scanner(System.in).nextLine().split("\\s+");
    BigInteger bi,bi2 = null;
    bi2 = new BigInteger(ss[1]);
    for(int i = 0 ; i<ss.length-1 ; i+=2 )
    {
        bi = new BigInteger(ss[i]);
        bi2 = bi.gcd(bi2);
    }
    System.out.println(bi2.toString());

Answer 6

I've used Euclid's algorithm to find the greatest common divisor of two numbers; it can be iterated to obtain the GCD of a larger set of numbers.

private static long gcd(long a, long b)
{
    while (b > 0)
    {
        long temp = b;
        b = a % b; // % is remainder
        a = temp;
    }
    return a;
}

private static long gcd(long[] input)
{
    long result = input[0];
    for(int i = 1; i < input.length; i++) result = gcd(result, input[i]);
    return result;
}

Least common multiple is a little trickier, but probably the best approach is reduction by the GCD, which can be similarly iterated:

private static long lcm(long a, long b)
{
    return a * (b / gcd(a, b));
}

private static long lcm(long[] input)
{
    long result = input[0];
    for(int i = 1; i < input.length; i++) result = lcm(result, input[i]);
    return result;
}