Question

Ok, I have this script that i wrote:

i=1024;
a=[0]*i;
for k in range(0,i):
    a[k]=(k*k*k*k-74*k*k+173) % 1000033
print a

I don’t understand how to find the biggest number in the list AND its position.

Answer 1

Just keep a running track, then you don’t need the list:

largest = None
i = 1024

for k in range(i):
    a = (k ** 4 - 74 * k ** 2 + 173) % 1000033
    if not largest or largest[1] < a:
        largest = (k, a)

print(largest)

Output:

(2, 999926)

P.S. i = 1048576 took a couple seconds and spat out:

(156865, 1000032L)

Note that it switched to long integers in there somewhere. This is with Python 2.6.1.

P.P.S. Also note that this method only finds the lowest index with the maximum. To get the highest index, replace the < with <=:

(843168, 1000032L)