# C Program for nth Catalan Number

CServer Side ProgrammingProgramming

Given an interger n; the task is to find the Catalan Number on that nth position. So, before doing the program we must know what is a Catalan Number?

Catlan numbers are the sequence of natural numbers, which occurs in the form of various counting number problems.

Catalan numbers C0, C1, C2,… Cn are driven by formula −

$$c_{n}=\frac{1}{n+1}\binom{2n}{n} = \frac{2n!}{(n+1)!n!}$$

The few Catalan numbers for every n = 0, 1, 2, 3, … are 1, 1, 2, 5, 14, 42, 132, 429, 1430, 4862, …

So if we entered n =3 we should get 5 as an output from the program

Some of few applications of Catalan numbers

• Counting the number of possible binary search trees with n keys.
• Finding the number of expressions containing n pair of parenthesis which are correctly matched. Like for n = 3 the possible parenthesis expression would be ((())), ()(()), ()()(), (())(), (()()).
• Finding number of ways to connect point on circle disjoint chords, and many more.

## Example

Input: n = 6
Output: 132
Input: n = 8
Output: 1430

Approach we will be using to solve the given problem

• Taking and input n.
• Check If n <= 1 then, Return 1
• Loop from i=0 to i<n and i++
• For every i Set result = result + (catalan(i)*catalan(n-i-1))
• Return and print the result.

## Algorithm

Start
Step 1 -> In function unsigned long int catalan(unsigned int n)
If n <= 1 then,
Return 1
End if
Declare an unsigned long variable res = 0
Loop For i=0 and i<n and i++
Set res = res + (catalan(i)*catalan(n-i-1))
End Loop
Return res
Step 2 -> int main()
Declare an input n = 6
Print "catalan is : then call function catalan(n)
Stop

## Example

#include <stdio.h>
// using recursive approach to find the catalan number
unsigned long int catalan(unsigned int n) {
// Base case
if (n <= 1) return 1;
// catalan(n) is sum of catalan(i)*catalan(n-i-1)
unsigned long int res = 0;
for (int i=0; i<n; i++)
res += catalan(i)*catalan(n-i-1);
return res;
}
//Main function
int main() {
int n = 6;
printf("catalan is :%ld\n", catalan(n));
return 0;
}

## Output

catalan is :132
Published on 20-Nov-2019 12:17:35