Problem with implementing Liebniz series

Hi All,

I'm trying to write a small program that approximates PI using Liebniz series (4*Pi = 1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + 1/9 - ...)

I think the implementation logic is correct ( though not efficient), the problem I am faced with is that any time i run the program by providing the number of terms of liebniz series required, the output is still 0.000. I have tried every diognostic method in my limited knowledge. Plz check out the code n see what is not right.

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
        long double pi, v, temp2=0;
        int i=1,n,flg=1,count=0;
       
        printf("Enter the number of terms of Liebniz's series to use: ");
        scanf("%d",&n);
       
        while(count!=n)
        {
                if(i%2!=0){
                        count++;
                        /* Problem HeRe */
                        v = 1.0/i;
                        printf("\nCount%d",count);
                        printf("\t%d",i);
                        printf("\t%Lf",v);
                        if(flg==1){
                                temp2+=v;
                                flg=0;
                        }
                        else if (flg==0){
                                temp2-=v;
                                flg=1;
                        }
                }
                i++;
        }

        pi=4*temp2;
        printf("The Approximation of Pi = %Lf",pi);

        return 0;
}

---

Thanx n looking forward to ur insights

Dunno

Code:

---

$ gcc -Wall -W -ansi -pedantic  hello.c
$ ./a.out
Enter the number of terms of Liebniz's series to use: 10

Count1  1      1.000000
Count2  3      0.333333
Count3  5      0.200000
Count4  7      0.142857
Count5  9      0.111111
Count6  11      0.090909
Count7  13      0.076923
Count8  15      0.066667
Count9  17      0.058824
Count10 19      0.052632The Approximation of Pi = 3.041840

---

This is compiled with gcc on Linux.
What are you using?

Glad u tried it out

I'm using gcc on WinXP. In my output the third column shows 0.0000 or some weird negative values. (The printf statements r there only for diagnostic purposes). What do u think is the problem?

Thnx for the quick response

How about actually posting the answers you get?
Or try with double instead.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by C_Necessity

Glad u tried it out

I'm using gcc on WinXP. In my output the third column shows 0.0000 or some weird negative values. (The printf statements r there only for diagnostic purposes). What do u think is the problem?

Thnx for the quick response

---

Try making the variables double (instead of long double), and use %f instead of %Lf in the printf() statements.

(If you are using mingw --- as in dev-cpp ---, there has been a longstanding problem with printf and long doubles.)

If it works with doubles, then you can still do the calculations with long doubles, and then cast the output to double when printing (I think).

[edit]
I knew that if I looked hard enough that I could blame it on Microsoft: Here's proof

I use cygwin gcc on my Windows XP box, and it works OK with long doubles (and just about everything else, as far as I have tried).
[/edit]

Regards,

Dave

Hi all,

Apologies for responding so late; the good news is that i tried using double instead of long double and the program works well. Here is an output using 100,000 terms of the Liebniz Series.

Count99995 199989 0.000005
Count99996 199991 0.000005
Count99997 199993 0.000005
Count99998 199995 0.000005
Count99999 199997 0.000005
Count100000 199999 0.000005The Approximation of Pi = 3.141583

The problem is why doesnt the Long Double type work?

Thnx a lot guys

>The problem is why doesnt the Long Double type work?
Haven't you read the link in Dave Evans' post? It does explain it.

You'll get a much more accurate answer if you sum the terms backwards, starting with the smallest terms. This is why you currently only get barely 6 decimal places of accuracy.