PHP "Maximum execution time" - php

Question

I'm trying to program my own Sine function implementation for fun but I keep getting :
Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 30 seconds exceeded
I have a small HTML form where you can enter the "x" value of Sin(x) your looking for and the number of "iterations" you want to calculate (precision of your value), the rest is PhP.
The maths are based of the "Series definition" of Sine on Wikipedia :
--> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sine#Series_definition
Here's my code :
<?php
function factorial($int) {
if($int<2)return 1;
for($f=2;$int-1>1;$f*=$int--);
return $f;
};
if(isset($_POST["x"]) && isset($_POST["iterations"])) {
$x = $_POST["x"];
$iterations = $_POST["iterations"];
}
else {
$error = "You forgot to enter the 'x' or the number of iterations you want.";
global $error;
}
if(isset($x) && is_numeric($x) && isset($iterations) && is_numeric($iterations)) {
$x = floatval($x);
$iterations = floatval($iterations);
for($i = 0; $i <= ($iterations-1); $i++) {
if($i%2 == 0) {
$operator = 1;
global $operator;
}
else {
$operator = -1;
global $operator;
}
}
for($k = 1; $k <= (($iterations-(1/2))*2); $k+2) {
$k = $k;
global $k;
}
function sinus($x, $iterations) {
if($x == 0 OR ($x%180) == 0) {
return 0;
}
else {
while($iterations != 0) {
$result = $result+(((pow($x, $k))/(factorial($k)))*$operator);
$iterations = $iterations-1;
return $result;
}
}
}
$result = sinus($x, $iterations);
global $result;
}
else if(!isset($x) OR !isset($iterations)) {
$error = "You forgot to enter the 'x' or the number of iterations you want.";
global $error;
}
else if(isset($x) && !is_numeric($x)&& isset($iterations) && is_numeric($iterations)) {
$error = "Not a valid number.";
global $error;
}
?>
My mistake probably comes from an infinite loop at this line :
$result = $result+(((pow($x, $k))/(factorial($k)))*$operator);
but I don't know how to solve the problem.
What I'm tring to do at this line is to calculate :
((pow($x, $k)) / (factorial($k)) + (((pow($x, $k))/(factorial($k)) * ($operator)
iterating :
+ (((pow($x, $k))/(factorial($k)) * $operator)
an "$iterations" amount of times with "$i"'s and "$k"'s values changing accordingly.
I'm really stuck here ! A bit of help would be needed. Thank you in advance !
Btw : The factorial function is not mine. I found it in a PhP.net comment and apparently it's the optimal factorial function.

Answer 1

Why are you computing the 'operator' and power 'k' out side the sinus function.
sin expansion looks like = x - x^2/2! + x^3/3! ....
something like this.
Also remember iteration is integer so apply intval on it and not floatval.
Also study in net how to use global. Anyway you do not need global because your 'operator' and power 'k' computation will be within sinus function.
Best of luck.

Answer 2

That factorial function is hardly optimal—for speed, though it is not bad. At least it does not recurse. It is simple and correct though. The major aspect of the timeout is that you are calling it a lot. One technique for improving its performance is to remember, in a local array, the values for factorial previously computed. Or just compute them all once.
There are many bits of your code which could endure improvement:
This statement:
while($iterations != 0)
What if $iterations is entered as 0.1? Or negative. That would cause an infinite loop. You can make the program more resistant to bad input with
while ($iterations > 0)
The formula for computing a sine uses the odd numbers: 1, 3, 5, 7; not every integer
There are easier ways to compute the alternating sign.
Excess complication of arithmetic expressions.
return $result is within the loop, terminating it early.
Here is a tested, working program which has adjustments for all these issues:
<?php
// precompute the factorial values
global $factorials;
$factorials = array();
foreach (range (0, 170) as $j)
if ($j < 2)
$factorials [$j] = 1;
else $factorials [$j] = $factorials [$j-1] * $j;
function sinus($x, $iterations)
{
global $factorials;
$sign = 1;
for ($j = 1, $result = 0; $j < $iterations * 2; $j += 2)
{
$result += pow($x, $j) / $factorials[$j] * $sign;
$sign = - $sign;
}
return $result;
}
// test program to prove functionality
$pi = 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097494459230781640628620;
$x_vals = array (0, $pi/4, $pi/2, $pi, $pi * 3/2, 2 * $pi);
foreach ($x_vals as $x)
{
$y = sinus ($x, 20);
echo "sinus($x) = $y\n";
}
?>
Output:
sinus(0) = 0
sinus(0.78539816339745) = 0.70710678118655
sinus(1.5707963267949) = 1
sinus(3.1415926535898) = 3.4586691443274E-16
sinus(4.7123889803847) = -1
sinus(6.2831853071796) = 8.9457384260403E-15
By the way, this executes very quickly: 32 milliseconds for this output.