Java BigInteger gcd(BigInteger val) method example

java.math.BigInteger gcd(BigInteger val)

Description

On this document we will be showing a java example on how to use the gcd(BigInteger val) method of BigInteger Class. Basically this method returns a BigInteger whose value is the greatest common divisor of abs(this) and abs(val). Returns 0 if this == 0 && val == 0.

A quick background on Greatest Comnon Divisor

The greatest common divisor (gcd) of two or more integers, when at least one of them is not zero, is the largest positive integer that divides the numbers without a remainder. For example, the GCD of 8 and 12 is 4.

Method Syntax

public BigInteger gcd(BigInteger val)

Method Argument

Data Type	Parameter	Description
BigInteger	val	value with which the GCD is to be computed.

Method Returns

The divide() method returns GCD(abs(this), abs(val)

Compatibility

Requires Java 1.1 and up

Java BigInteger gcd(BigInteger val) Example

Below is a java code demonstrates the use of gcd(BigInteger val) method of BigInteger class. The example presented might be simple however it shows the behavior of the gcd(BigInteger val) method.

package com.javatutorialhq.java.examples;

import java.math.BigInteger;
import java.util.Scanner;

/*
 * A java example source code to demonstrate
 * the use of gcd(BigInteger val) 
 * method of BigInteger class
 */

public class BigIntegerGCDExample {

	public static void main(String[] args) {	
		
		// ask for user input
		System.out.print("Enter the first value:");
		Scanner s = new Scanner(System.in);
		String input1 = s.nextLine();
		System.out.print("Enter the second value:");	
		String input2 = s.nextLine();
		s.close();
		
		// convert the string input to BigInteger
		BigInteger val1 = new BigInteger(input1);
		BigInteger val2 = new BigInteger(input2);
		
		
		// get the GCD
		BigInteger gcd = val1.gcd(val2);
		System.out.println("The GCD of " + val1 
				+ " and " + val2 + " is " + gcd);		
				
	}

}

This example is a lot simpler than it looks. We simply ask the user for two inputs and then convert these into BigInteger. The greatest common divisior were derived using the gcd() method.

Sample Output

Below is the sample output when you run the above example.

References

Oracle Java Documentation