Compute the prime factors of a given natural number.
A prime number is only evenly divisible by itself and 1.
Note that 1 is not a prime number.
What are the prime factors of 60?
- Our first divisor is 2. 2 goes into 60, leaving 30.
- 2 goes into 30, leaving 15.
- 2 doesn't go cleanly into 15. So let's move on to our next divisor, 3.
- 3 goes cleanly into 15, leaving 5.
- 3 does not go cleanly into 5. The next possible factor is 4.
- 4 does not go cleanly into 5. The next possible factor is 5.
- 5 does go cleanly into 5.
- We're left only with 1, so now, we're done.
Our successful divisors in that computation represent the list of prime factors of 60: 2, 2, 3, and 5.
You can check this yourself:
- 2 * 2 * 3 * 5
- = 4 * 15
- = 60
- Success!
To run the tests run the command go test from within the exercise directory.
If the test suite contains benchmarks, you can run these with the -bench
flag:
go test -bench .
Keep in mind that each reviewer will run benchmarks on a different machine, with different specs, so the results from these benchmark tests may vary.
For more detailed information about the Go track, including how to get help if you're having trouble, please visit the exercism.io Go language page.
The Prime Factors Kata by Uncle Bob http://butunclebob.com/ArticleS.UncleBob.ThePrimeFactorsKata
It's possible to submit an incomplete solution so you can see how others have completed the exercise.