Python Prime Number Checker

[Arrexel]

I thought this would be useful for RSA key generation and such, and I was also bored out of my tree.

Code: Select all


# Prime Number Checker by Alex "Arrexel" Reid
print "Prime Number Checker"
primenum = float(raw_input("Enter the number to check: "))

if primenum % 2 == 0:
    primehalf = primenum / 2
elif primenum % 2 != 0:
    primehalf = primenum / 2 + 0.5

primehalf = long(primehalf)
divisor = 2
prime = True

for x in range(primehalf):
    if primenum % divisor == 0:
        print int(primenum), "is not a prime number."
        prime = False
        break
    divisor += 1

if prime != False:
    print int(primenum), "is a prime number."


Add suggestions/improvements/comments.

-Arr

[Gangees]

I'm not much of a coder but from a mathematical point of view, it would be quicker to use the square root function instead of the primehalf that you use. Also you can check for divisibility by 2 in a seperate step, then set your divisor=3 at the start and increase by 2 instead (since you only need to check the odd numbers).

Code: Select all

# Prime Number Checker by Alex "Arrexel" Reid
print "Prime Number Checker"
primenum = float(raw_input("Enter the number to check: "))

if primenum % 2 == 0:
      print int(primenum), "is not a prime number."

primeroot=int(primenum**.5)
divisor = 3
prime = True

for x in range(primeroot):
    if primenum % divisor == 0:
        print int(primenum), "is not a prime number."
        prime = False
        break
    divisor += 2

if prime != False:
    print int(primenum), "is a prime number."

Hopefully this helps!

[Arrexel]

Ah, all good suggestions. We need more posts like that being made on these forums

[TheMindRapist]

You can optimize it even further by pregenerating a list of prime numbers, and only checking if the input is divisible by prime numbers.

[Arrexel]

Ahh, good idea as well. Just so have it, that I generated the first 100,000 primes last night with a script I made. As a matter of fact, I was about to post it before I saw a reply here

I bet it could use improvements, too.

[Defience]

Yeah, like TheMindRapist said you could have a list of primes and check against that list. Maybe something like this which could be expanded on with some 'if' statements but you get the idea:

>>> primes=[2,3,5,7,11,13,17,19,23]
>>> str_digits="23"
>>> str_prime=''.join([c for c in str_digits if int(c) in (primes)])
>>> str_prime
'23'