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In my book, Programming in C (fourth edition) by Stephen G. Kochan, I have a task to implement the Sieve of Eratosthenes algorithm as follows:

Display All Prime Numbers Between 1 and n = 150

  • Step 1: Define an array of integers P. Set all elements Pi to 0,
  •      2 <= i <= n.
  • Step 2: Set i to 2.
  • Step 3: If i > n, the algorithm terminates.
  • Step 4: If Pi is 0, then i is prime.
  • Step 5: For all positive integer values of j, such that i x j ≤ n,
  •      set <sub>Pixj</sub> to 1.
 Step 6: Add 1 to i and go to step 3.

I understand the broad concept but have a hard time understanding the steps in the algorithm and the purpose of each one.

Questions:

  1. In step 1, what is the purpose of setting all elements p[i] to 0? Wouldn't the array elements need to be from 0 to 150 starting out?

  2. In step 4, does it mean that the multiples of i get the value 0 and if any other value than zero will be prime? Essentialy, it would convert all multiples of i to 0 (composite) and leave all prime numbers?

  3. Step 5 has me confused all together, I'm not sure how to form a coherent question on this. What does a subscript like this mean Pixj? Also, the logic of step 4 does not make sense, I need something in more laymens terms if possible. (just a hint would be fine so I can get it myself)

FYI I am a beginner in learning the basics of computer science and programming so less cryptic responses will be appreciated! This exercise above is from Chapter 6: Arrays. Thank you!

I have not attempted in code yet, I need to understand the algorithmic steps first.

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    Try it with a paper and pencil, taking n=10 instead of 150. Commented Mar 23, 2023 at 13:50
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    Each entry of P is effectively just a flag; it's only ever going to take the values 0 or 1. Think of 0 as "maybe prime" and 1 as "definitely composite". So when i=2, you will write 1 to entries 4, 6, 8, 10 which are indeed composite. When i=3 you will write 1 to entries 6 and 9 (note entry 6 was already 1, but that's okay). When i=4 you will write 1 to entry 8 (which is redundant). When i=5 you will write 1 to entry 10, also redundant. For i=6,7,8,9,10 you won't write anything. Commented Mar 23, 2023 at 13:53
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    At the end, entries 4,6,8,9,10 have been written as 1, and the remaining entries 0,1,2,3,5,7 remain at zero. Entries 0 and 1 are not used so ignore them. That leaves 2, 3, 5, 7 which are indeed all the primes between 2 and 10. Commented Mar 23, 2023 at 13:54
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    The values in Pi (P[i]) are flags — true or false, zero or non-zero. When the algorithm completes, the entries with Pi still zero mean that i is a prime number. Step 4: at the start, P2 is zero, so 2 is a prime number. Step 5: set P4, P6, P8, ... to one, indicating that 4, 6, 8 are not prime. Commented Mar 23, 2023 at 13:54
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    ixj actually means i*j. Commented Mar 23, 2023 at 14:02

1 Answer 1

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In step 1, what is the purpose of setting all elements p[i] to 0? Wouldn't the array elements need to be from 0 to 150 starting out?

The array P is used to record whether an integer is known to be non-prime. Each element Pi is initialized to zero to denote the fact that, initially, the algorithm does not know whether i is non-prime.

In step 4, does it mean that the multiples of i get the value 0 and if any other value than zero will be prime? [Essentially], it would convert all multiples of i to 0 (composite) and leave all prime numbers?

Step 4 is poorly stated. When step 4 is reached in the algorithm, sufficient work has been performed that, if Pi is zero, then i must be prime. In step 4, the algorithm is intended to report this fact by some means, such as writing i to standard output.

Step 5 has me confused all together, I'm not sure how to form a coherent question on this. What does a subscript like this mean Pixj? Also, the logic of step 4 does not make sense, I need something in more laymens terms if possible. (just a hint would be fine so I can get it myself)

“Pixj” means Pi×j. In step 5, the algorithm has an i and iterates through a loop on j. In each iteration of that loop, the code should calculate the product t = i×j and set Pt to 1, denoting the fact that t is known to be non-prime (because it is the product of i and j).

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2 Comments

@Brandon12 Note for step 4 that this serves for not needlessly running the nested loop (j) for numbers that already have been determined not to be prime; e.g. with i = 2 indices 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, ... will be set to 1; once i reaches 4 its multiples (8, 12, 16, ...) already have been set with i == 2, so you don't need to run the nested loop. You need, though, for 3 or 5 as these haven't been met yet. These will update 6 (albeit is already), 9, 12, 15, ... and 10, 15, 20, 25, (first one not yet set), 30, 35, ....
@Brandon12: Possible optimisation, by the way: For each new i you can start the iteration with j = i*i (as in for(size_t j = i*i; j <= n; j += i) – note array size being one larger than n!), as for all k < i (current i) the multiples k*i have already been covered when i (historically) has been equal to k. This means at the same time that you can stop iterating on i*i > n as you can't find any further primes on i getting larger anyway ;)

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