Write a Lisp program to calculate the sum of the first N positive integers

[fernanroy]

Help! Please

I am trying to write a Lisp program to calculate the sum of the first N positive integers where, for example, when N = 6 the sum of the first N = 21

Any Ideas?

 

[out of whack]

Sure: the sum of the first N numbers is N plus the sum of the first N-1 numbers. That's a very strong hint. Heck, it's pretty much exactly the answer in LISP...

 

[fernanroy]

Sure: the sum of the first N numbers is N plus the sum of the first N-1 numbers. That's a very strong hint. Heck, it's pretty much exactly the answer in LISP...

Would it be something like this?

(defun nsum (n)
(if (integerp n)
(if (or (= n 0) (< n 1))
Please enter the positive integer
(* n(/ 2(+ n 1))))))

Regards

 

[fernanroy]

This attempt yields the error: *** Read error: The input could not be tokenized at 2, 2. ***

> (defun sum (n1 n2)
“Returns the sum of two positive integers.”
(assert
(and (integerp n1) (>= n1 0))
(n1)
“N1 must be a nonnegative integer, instead it’s ~S.”
(n1)
(assert
(integerp n2)
(n2)
:N2 must be an integer, instead it’s ~S.”
n2)
(if (zerop n1) n2
(sum (1- n1) (1+n2))))

 

[out of whack]

Even more obvious hint: nsum of n is defined as 0 if n is less than 1, otherwise it is n plus the nsum of (n-1). This is true in English, right? So write exactly that, but in LISP instead of English.