Question:

I challenged myself to create a program to experiment with Prime Numbers, I already have an idea how to do it, but not the coding skills..

My plan is this: First ill create a program in C# that makes straight lines that follow some rules:

<strong>rule 1:</strong> all lines have the same length.

<strong>rule 2:</strong> all lines are either horizontal or vertical (no diagonals).

<strong>rule 3:</strong> Every new line begins where the previous line has ended (that way all the lines are joined).

Now for the tricky part:

I would like to make a counter that goes up by 1 each time a new line is created (starting value is 1 I presume), and whenever it reaches a prime number, the lines change 'direction' and start 'going' to the left of the original direction.

<strong>The first 10 lines will look something like this:</strong>

| __ | | | | |__ __|

Notice how it changed direction at the 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 7th line.

(starting from the inside ending at the outside)

This will create a long twisting line and it will be pretty cool to see what pattern it makes.

Thanks for helping!

This was a fun project to play with. Thanks for my morning entertainment!

I used SLaks code in <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1510124/program-to-find-prime-numbers/1510186#1510186" rel="nofollow">this SO thread</a> to get a list of Primes less than a specified number.

Here is some sample output:

<a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/6WRgR.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="Example Output #1" class="b-lazy" data-src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/6WRgR.jpg" data-original="https://i.stack.imgur.com/6WRgR.jpg" src="https://etrip.eimg.top/images/2019/05/07/timg.gif" /></a> <a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/wjDy6.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="Example Output #2" class="b-lazy" data-src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/wjDy6.jpg" data-original="https://i.stack.imgur.com/wjDy6.jpg" src="https://etrip.eimg.top/images/2019/05/07/timg.gif" /></a> <a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/iEeeq.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="Example Output #3" class="b-lazy" data-src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/iEeeq.jpg" data-original="https://i.stack.imgur.com/iEeeq.jpg" src="https://etrip.eimg.top/images/2019/05/07/timg.gif" /></a>

After generating the Primes, I walk the list and store the lines in a <a href="https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.drawing.drawing2d.graphicspath(v=vs.110).aspx" rel="nofollow">GraphicsPath</a>. Using the Graphics.GetBounds() method then allows us to appropriately scale and transform the Graphics in the Paint() event of our Panel so that the entire drawing can be seen:

public partial class Form1 : Form { private const int segmentLength = 10; private GraphicsPath gpPrimes = null; public Form1() { InitializeComponent(); nudLessThanMax.Minimum = 15; nudLessThanMax.Maximum = 500000; nudLessThanMax.Value = nudLessThanMax.Minimum; pnlPrimes.Paint += PnlPrimes_Paint; pnlPrimes.SizeChanged += PnlPrimes_SizeChanged; } private void PnlPrimes_SizeChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) { pnlPrimes.Invalidate(); } private void PnlPrimes_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e) { if (gpPrimes != null) { RectangleF rectF = gpPrimes.GetBounds(); float max = Math.Max(rectF.Width + (2 * segmentLength), rectF.Height + (2 * segmentLength)); e.Graphics.TranslateTransform(pnlPrimes.Width / 2, pnlPrimes.Height / 2); e.Graphics.ScaleTransform((float)pnlPrimes.Width / max, (float)pnlPrimes.Height / max); e.Graphics.TranslateTransform(-(rectF.Left + rectF.Width / 2), -(rectF.Top + rectF.Height / 2)); e.Graphics.DrawPath(Pens.Black, gpPrimes); } } private void btnGraphPrimes_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { btnGraphPrimes.Enabled = false; backgroundWorker1.RunWorkerAsync((int)this.nudLessThanMax.Value); } private List<int> PrimesLessThan(int num) // SLaks: https://stackoverflow.com/a/1510186/2330053 { return Enumerable.Range(0, (int)Math.Floor(2.52 * Math.Sqrt(num) / Math.Log(num))).Aggregate( Enumerable.Range(2, num - 1).ToList(), (result, index) => { var bp = result[index]; var sqr = bp * bp; result.RemoveAll(i => i >= sqr && i % bp == 0); return result; } ); } private void backgroundWorker1_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e) { int diff; int num = (int)e.Argument; Point pt = new Point(0, 0); Point pt2 = pt; GraphicsPath gp = new GraphicsPath(); List<int> primes = PrimesLessThan(num); for(int i = 1; i < primes.Count; i++) { diff = primes[i] - primes[i - 1]; switch(i % 4) { case 1: // up pt2 = new Point(pt.X, pt.Y - (segmentLength * diff)); break; case 2: // left pt2 = new Point(pt.X - (segmentLength * diff), pt.Y); break; case 3: // down pt2 = new Point(pt.X, pt.Y + (segmentLength * diff)); break; case 0: // right pt2 = new Point(pt.X + (segmentLength * diff), pt.Y); break; } gp.AddLine(pt, pt2); pt = pt2; } gpPrimes = gp; e.Result = primes; } private void backgroundWorker1_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e) { lbPrimes.DataSource = (List<int>)e.Result; pnlPrimes.Invalidate(); btnGraphPrimes.Enabled = true; } }

Once again I wish I had enough points to make this just a comment, but I wanted to make sure you knew ahead of time this will not result in a sprial all the way out. There are pairs of primes only 2 apart (n, n+2 both prime) which will make your snake do a 180 and cross over itself.

If you are OK with that, then look into the System.Drawing namespace, especially at the Graphics.Drawline method. Or have a look at a little code that will help give you the right idea. Just put a pictureBox in a Windows Form and this code will put a line on it. From there you can work on your pen colors, scale, finding your primes, etc.

Bitmap bmp = new Bitmap(pictureBox1.Width, pictureBox1.Height); using (Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(bmp)) { g.DrawLine(new Pen(Color.Red), 300, 100, 100, 100); } pictureBox1.Image = bmp;