这是我能想到的最好的算法。

def get_primes(n):
    numbers = set(range(n, 1, -1))
    primes = []
    while numbers:
        p = numbers.pop()
        primes.append(p)
        numbers.difference_update(set(range(p*2, n+1, p)))
    return primes

>>> timeit.Timer(stmt='get_primes.get_primes(1000000)', setup='import   get_primes').timeit(1)
1.1499958793645562

还能做得更快吗?

这段代码有一个缺陷:由于numbers是一个无序集,不能保证numbers.pop()将从集合中移除最低的数字。尽管如此,它还是适用于(至少对我来说)一些输入数字:

>>> sum(get_primes(2000000))
142913828922L
#That's the correct sum of all numbers below 2 million
>>> 529 in get_primes(1000)
False
>>> 529 in get_primes(530)
True

当前回答

到目前为止,我尝试过的最快的方法是基于Python烹饪书erat2函数:

import itertools as it
def erat2a( ):
    D = {  }
    yield 2
    for q in it.islice(it.count(3), 0, None, 2):
        p = D.pop(q, None)
        if p is None:
            D[q*q] = q
            yield q
        else:
            x = q + 2*p
            while x in D:
                x += 2*p
            D[x] = p

关于加速的解释,请看下面的答案。

其他回答

假设N < 9,080,191, Miller-Rabin's Primality检验的确定性实现

import sys

def miller_rabin_pass(a, n):
    d = n - 1
    s = 0
    while d % 2 == 0:
        d >>= 1
        s += 1

    a_to_power = pow(a, d, n)
    if a_to_power == 1:
        return True
    for i in range(s-1):
        if a_to_power == n - 1:
            return True
        a_to_power = (a_to_power * a_to_power) % n
    return a_to_power == n - 1


def miller_rabin(n):
    if n <= 2:
        return n == 2

    if n < 2_047:
        return miller_rabin_pass(2, n)

    return all(miller_rabin_pass(a, n) for a in (31, 73))


n = int(sys.argv[1])
primes = [2]
for p in range(3,n,2):
  if miller_rabin(p):
    primes.append(p)
print len(primes)

根据维基百科(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller -Rabin_primality_test)上的文章,对于a = 37和73,测试N < 9,080,191足以判断N是否为合数。

我从原始米勒-拉宾测试的概率实现中改编了源代码:https://www.literateprograms.org/miller-rabin_primality_test__python_.html

第一次使用python,所以我在这里使用的一些方法可能看起来有点麻烦。我只是直接将我的c++代码转换为python,这就是我所拥有的(尽管在python中有点慢)

#!/usr/bin/env python
import time

def GetPrimes(n):

    Sieve = [1 for x in xrange(n)]

    Done = False
    w = 3

    while not Done:

        for q in xrange (3, n, 2):
            Prod = w*q
            if Prod < n:
                Sieve[Prod] = 0
            else:
                break

        if w > (n/2):
            Done = True
        w += 2

    return Sieve



start = time.clock()

d = 10000000
Primes = GetPrimes(d)

count = 1 #This is for 2

for x in xrange (3, d, 2):
    if Primes[x]:
        count+=1

elapsed = (time.clock() - start)
print "\nFound", count, "primes in", elapsed, "seconds!\n"

pythonw Primes.py 在12.799119秒内找到664579个质数!

#!/usr/bin/env python
import time

def GetPrimes2(n):

    Sieve = [1 for x in xrange(n)]

    for q in xrange (3, n, 2):
        k = q
        for y in xrange(k*3, n, k*2):
            Sieve[y] = 0

    return Sieve



start = time.clock()

d = 10000000
Primes = GetPrimes2(d)

count = 1 #This is for 2

for x in xrange (3, d, 2):
    if Primes[x]:
        count+=1

elapsed = (time.clock() - start)
print "\nFound", count, "primes in", elapsed, "seconds!\n"

pythonw Primes2.py 在10.230172秒内找到664579个质数!

#!/usr/bin/env python
import time

def GetPrimes3(n):

    Sieve = [1 for x in xrange(n)]

    for q in xrange (3, n, 2):
        k = q
        for y in xrange(k*k, n, k << 1):
            Sieve[y] = 0

    return Sieve



start = time.clock()

d = 10000000
Primes = GetPrimes3(d)

count = 1 #This is for 2

for x in xrange (3, d, 2):
    if Primes[x]:
        count+=1

elapsed = (time.clock() - start)
print "\nFound", count, "primes in", elapsed, "seconds!\n"

python Primes2.py 在7.113776秒内找到664579个质数!

我发现的最简单的方法是:

primes = []
for n in range(low, high + 1):
    if all(n % i for i in primes):
        primes.append(n)

对于足够大的N,真正最快的解决方案是下载一个预先计算的质数列表,将其存储为元组,并执行如下操作:

for pos,i in enumerate(primes):
    if i > N:
        print primes[:pos]

如果只有N >个质数[-1],则计算更多的质数并将新列表保存在代码中,以便下次同样快。

要跳出思维定势。

这是你和别人比较的方式。

# You have to list primes upto n
nums = xrange(2, n)
for i in range(2, 10):
    nums = filter(lambda s: s==i or s%i, nums)
print nums

这么简单……