Returns the least common multiple of two or more numbers.
Use the greatest common divisor (GCD) formula and the fact that lcm(x,y) = x * y / gcd(x,y) to determine the least common multiple. The GCD formula uses recursion.
Uses reduce function from the inbuilt module functools. Also defines a method spread for javascript like spreading of lists.
from functools import reduce
def spread(arg):
ret = []
for i in arg:
if isinstance(i, list):
ret.extend(i)
else:
ret.append(i)
return ret
def lcm(*args):
numbers = []
numbers.extend(spread(list(args)))
def _gcd(x, y):
return x if not y else _gcd(y, x % y)
def _lcm(x, y):
return x * y / _gcd(x, y)
return reduce((lambda x, y: _lcm(x, y)), numbers)
#input and output :
lcm(12, 7) # 84
lcm([1, 3, 4], 5) # 60