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Factorial is a mathematical function that calculates the product of all positive integers up to a given number. It is denoted by the symbol “!” and is read as “factorial”. For example, the factorial of 5, denoted as 5!, is calculated as:
5! = 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 120
Factorial has many applications in mathematics and science, including probability theory, combinatorics, and the binomial theorem. In programming, the factorial function is often used as a basic example to demonstrate recursion and iteration.
Here is an example of Java code to calculate the factorial of a given number using recursion:
public class Factorial {
public static void main(String[] args) {
int n = 5;
int result = factorial(n);
System.out.println("Factorial of " + n + " is " + result);
}
public static int factorial(int n) {
if (n == 0) {
return 1;
}
return n * factorial(n - 1);
}
}
In this code, the main
function initializes the variable n
to 5 and then calls the factorial
function to calculate the factorial of n
. The result is then printed to the console.
The factorial
function takes an integer n
as input and recursively calculates the factorial of n
. If n
is equal to 0, then the function returns 1. Otherwise, the function multiplies n
by the result of calling factorial
with n-1
as input. This continues until n
reaches 0, at which point the function returns 1.
When this code is executed, it will output the message “Factorial of 5 is 120” to the console.
Here is an example of Java code to calculate the factorial of a given number using iteration:
public class Factorial {
public static void main(String[] args) {
int n = 5;
int result = factorial(n);
System.out.println("Factorial of " + n + " is " + result);
}
public static int factorial(int n) {
int result = 1;
for (int i = 1; i <= n; i++) {
result *= i;
}
return result;
}
}
In this code, the main
function initializes the variable n
to 5 and then calls the factorial
function to calculate the factorial of n
. The result is then printed to the console.
The factorial
function takes an integer n
as input and uses a for
loop to iteratively calculate the factorial of n
. The function initializes result
to 1 and then multiplies it by each integer from 1 to n
, inclusive. Once the loop finishes, the function returns the value of result
.
When this code is executed, it will output the message “Factorial of 5 is 120” to the console.
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