Suppose we have a number n. We have to find the length of period in decimal value of 1/n. So if the value of n is 7, then 1/7 = 0.142857142857… That part in bold letters are repeating. So here the length of period is 6.
For a number n, there can be n distinct remainders in the output, but the period may not begin from the first remainder as some initial remainders are non-repeating. So we have to make sure that a remainder from period is picked, start from (n+1)th remainder, and start looking for the next occurrence. The distance between (n+1)th remainder and the next occurrence, is the length of the period.
#include<iostream> using namespace std; int periodLength(int n) { int remainder = 1; int length = 0; for (int i = 1; i <= n+1; i++) remainder = (10*remainder) % n; int d = remainder; do { remainder = (10*remainder) % n; length++; } while(remainder != d); return length; } int main() { int n = 7; cout << "Period length of 1/"<<n<<" is: " << periodLength(n) << endl; }
Period length of 1/7 is: 6