Bash FCTRL2 wrong answer

[hardeeps]

Hi

I have used bash to solve the FCTRL2 problem (problem is to compute the factorial of a small number). As part of the bash script, I have also used bc and tr commands. I understand from another post on this forum that both of them are installed on the servers.

The problem states that input numbers will be less than or equal to 100. I have run my script on my PC for all numbers <=100 and its printing the correct result. So I cannot understand why its giving problem in the SPOC environment. I wonder if this could be due to some formatting issues - for example the linefeed at the end of each line.

Please advice what I should do.

Regards
Hardeep

[azredneck]

My solution uses just bc and bash builtins, and is extremely simple:

!/bin/bash

read numtests;

for ((i=1; i <= $numtests; i++)); do
read n
echo "define f (x) { if (x <= 1) return (1); return (f(x-1) * x); } f($n)" | bc
done

It works for any input I've given it (although, obviously, due to multiple invocations of bc it's not particularly fast... I have a faster one also working).

I rewrote it to use a different style for loop (b/c my SBANK uses this style and also inexplicably gives WA):

for i in seq $numtests; do
read n
echo "define f (x) { if (x <= 1) return (1); return (f(x-1) * x); } f($n)" | bc
done

But it still doesn't work.

Does bc no longer exist in the bash chroot or something?