matlab (version 1.0.4.1)

primes: MATLAB primes function

Description

Generate a list of prime numbers.

Usage

primes(n)

Value

Returns numeric vector containing prime numbers less than or equal to argument n.

Arguments

n

scalar numeric specifying largest prime number desired.

Author

H. Borchers , P. Roebuck

Details

Generates the list of prime numbers less than or equal to n using a variant of the basic "Sieve of Eratosthenes" algorithm. This approach is reasonably fast, but requires a copious amount of memory when n is large. A prime number is one that has no other factors other than 1 and itself.

See Also

isprime, factors

Examples

primes(1000)
length(primes(1e6))    #   78498 prime numbers less than one million
if (FALSE) {
  length(primes(1e7))  #  664579 prime numbers less than ten million
  length(primes(1e8))  # 5761455 prime numbers less than one hundred million
}