Binary GCD in C#

Algorithms: Number Theory November 15, 2026 csharp

Binary GCD replaces general remainders with parity tests, division by two, and subtraction..

csharp
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using System;
// Binary GCD in C#
//
// PURPOSE
// Binary GCD replaces general remainders with parity tests, division by two, and
// subtraction.
//
// METHOD
// Remove common factors of two, make the first operand odd, repeatedly make the second odd
// and subtract the smaller odd operand, then restore the common power of two.
//
// COMPLEXITY
// O(log(max(a,b))) iterations under fixed-width arithmetic, O(1) space.
//
// CONTRACT
// Nonnegative integers. gcd(0,0)=0.
// Public APIs infer array lengths except in C, which accepts pointer/length pairs. Vertex
// counts and matrix dimensions remain explicit. Arrays must contain signed 32-bit integers.
// Sorted order, correct tree topology, and caller-owned data-structure invariants are
// preconditions; checking them on every query would change query complexity.
// Scalar and shape checks are included. Value-range checks are included where needed to
// prevent invalid indexing or nontermination. Allocation sizes are capped at 4,000,000
// workspace entries. Arithmetic outside Python raises an error on 32-bit overflow; Python
// uses arbitrary precision. Native allocation failures propagate. In-place outputs may be
// partly updated after arithmetic failure. These are single-threaded, in-memory
// implementations.
//
// LANGUAGE DETAILS
// C# / .NET 10: ReadOnlySpan<int> inputs, Span<int> outputs, primitive workspace arrays,
// Array.BinarySearch for LIS, and checked integer arithmetic. Invalid arguments and overflow
// throw exceptions.
//
// EXAMPLE
// Expected return: 6.
// Run: Use Program.cs in a net10.0 console project; dotnet run.
// Tests for this exact source artifact run before publication. The accompanying source
// archive includes unit cases, runtime results, and source hashes.

class Program {
    static void alg_require(bool valid) { if (!valid) throw new ArgumentException("invalid algorithm input"); }
    static int alg_size(int n) { alg_require(n>=0 && n<=4000000); return n; }

    static int binary_gcd(int a, int b) {
        checked {
            alg_require(((a >= 0) && (b >= 0)));
            if ((a == 0)) {
                return b;
            }
            if ((b == 0)) {
                return a;
            }
            int factor = 1;
            int temp = 0;
            while ((((a % 2) == 0) && ((b % 2) == 0))) {
                a = (a / 2);
                b = (b / 2);
                factor = (factor * 2);
            }
            while (((a % 2) == 0)) {
                a = (a / 2);
            }
            while ((b != 0)) {
                while (((b % 2) == 0)) {
                    b = (b / 2);
                }
                if ((a > b)) {
                    temp = a;
                    a = b;
                    b = temp;
                }
                b = (b - a);
            }
            return (a * factor);
        }
    }

    static void Main() {
        int a = 48;
        int b = 18;
        int result = binary_gcd(a, b);
        Console.WriteLine(result);
    }
}