Harmonic Sums Recursive Code

[lostandconfused]

Can someone please tell me what I am doing wrong? I cannot figure it out. Maybe it is my math somewhere. In short, the nth harmonic number is defined as 1 + ½ + ⅓ + … + 1/n. The base case is Harmonic Sum 1 equals one.

#include <stdio.h>

int main (void)
{
    double n, soln;
    double harmonic_num (double num);
    
    printf("Harmonic numbers \n");
    
    do
    {
        
        printf("Enter a positive number (or 0 to quit) \n");
        scanf("%lf", &n);
        
        if (n == 0)
            {
                printf("Goodbye! \n");
                system("PAUSE");
                return;
            }
        
        if (n == 1)
        {
            printf("Harmonic number %lf is %.6lf", n, harmonic_num(n));
            return;
        }
        else
        
        soln = harmonic_num(n);
        
        
        printf("Harmonic number %.0lf is %.6lf", n, soln);
        printf("\n");
        
    } while (n != 0);
    
    
    system ("PAUSE");
    return 0;   
}

//Harmonic Function
    double harmonic_num (double num)
    {
        double k;
        double value = (1/num);
        k = num;
        
        while (k <= 1)
        {
            value += 1+ AZ`(1/(k-1));
            k--;
        }
        return value;
    }

[quzah]

    double harmonic_num (double num)
    {
        double k;
        double value = (1/num);
        k = num;
        
        while (k <= 1)
        {
            value += 1+ AZ`(1/(k-1));
            k--;
        }
        return value;
    }

I'm not really sure what you're doing here. From your description, it seems like you should just be doing:

double harmonic( int n )
{
    double s = 1.0;
    do
    {
        s += 1.0 / n;
    }
    while( --n > 1 );

    return s;
}

Or am I just not understanding what it is you're trying to do?


Quzah.

[LordPc]

id have a closer look at that harmonic num function

it doesnt do much

[lostandconfused]

Got it. I was making a very simple mistake. Thanks