# A Twist To The Rational Story

As a followup to brrt's Curious Benchmark post, I wanted to explore some of the questions that were left unanswered.

## A Reminder

This is the benchmark that we started with.

  # reciprocal.pl
my $x = 0;$x += 1/$_ for 1..50_000_000; print "$x\n";
say "Took {now - BEGIN now} seconds";

18.304749238293297
Took 37.44224442 seconds


I ran this on a Perl 6 with all the nice MoarVM postrelease-opts performance improvements. Even still, it takes its leisurely time to complete the 50M iterations. In the samples below I am going to use a far smaller range, for reasons that will become clear.

## Enforcing the Rat Type

Firstly, what happens if we require $x to be a Rat?  my Rat$x = 0.Rat;
$x += 1/$_ for 1..50_000;
say $x; CATCH { default { .say } }  Type check failed in assignment to$x; expected Rat but got Num (4.437963841730785e0)
in sub  at EVAL_0 line 4
in block  at EVAL_0 line 7
in block  at -e line 1


That's a surprise! Partway through execution, the Rat must overflow and get promoted to a Num – or is that demoted?

## Let's Try FatRat

Okay, so Rat wasn't big enough so let's try a FatRat instead.

  {
my FatRat $x = 0.FatRat;$x += 1/$_ for 1..50_000; say "Took$(now - ENTER now) seconds";
{
say $x; say "Took$(now - ENTER now) seconds";
}
}

Took 2.4054302 seconds
9.094508852984436967261245533393439391782987811303811450616283852090532830500877899391409299236919740934720238423958152461464697961622169241216791813750556812237313511140859270404541831699614754904269158516598241629322075801752116740431282583910490694817880059304425528697636894237513849342228259432117843984452095036207741367170195434776718730672051742512011684795924796504589284884983594406387782399589897339451903860663283511854503274439879816592044456945773254455711557434617651389382862163916129471984525721863166980007698641306451382737263108301823328515346280599078199924958477831938100326754331218433710083376461207790456151273618214761663786421583619870926557833387010912425422463713445727605033957580213563044379373993099087270299948291541401493871536121697877985858428341656399022885723806364741339502816420605832991453304501605073674466747017303873357018723900540406146046456443644030469863929256359609306121855786558557319397803083709255269002824207411915964104010465799065403533660896176085619791918999457106531507816827020034959881412244447364632468190985773855441903151967413422221257039375062944629694873598674985445114416758362142179107039709753140912455789066912941999796602420986514991051180297554293991544363505315137370048461268760493365572301561758462166226030762716920811267950974622528020552921252450110196508304427669880560860148792530903958804393013289095139412439001489152545082650274456591858268381958364303872285421143108996973443984931632852565281764123162272042988188031627475855556969251905663806187822026043054543788425418167117114177298447981297141050648142536402067542406940696380370820592643823025390316121777120920630903923203809700914144246592321213424882645323853537191487401562555337325197773832863607094176325687770325041707268407475710620704461559746527369630917931686513408078143853060070502351105758038741067818255191970046781711756379318996696181504975510337520029384275583560810112764886784426005517224438440092233147389320233898519601258970640361473644981284274698820973817169983250484506000025083953638120994057872040996158768783727413024494684573261481759846292967131080689221411336106208013550068579713639132626946272
Took 0.014583 seconds


There are two things to note here. Firstly, the precision of the result is far greater. Secondly, it runs like treacle. It's taken nearly 13 min for just 50K iterations. You're welcome to try a 500K or more, but the run time deteriorates non-linearly.

## Reducing Hyper Fun

Okay, that was interesting. And we've uncovered just how slow Rat and FatRat are just now. But questions. What would be a more idiomatic way to write this in Perl 6?

  say [+] [1..50_000] »**» -1;
say "Took {now - BEGIN now} seconds";

11.397003949278504
Took 0.32804122 seconds


That was pretty slick. Why not run it for more iterations, I hear you ask.

  say [+] [1..500_000] »**» -1;
CATCH { default { .say } }

Too many arguments in flattening array.
in sub  at EVAL_0 line 3
in block  at EVAL_0 line 5
in block  at -e line 1


Sadface. I'm not sure why this flattens before the reduce operator.

## It's a Race

Could we speed things up a bit with a .race? Yes we can!

  say [+] [1..50_000].race.map(1 / *);
say "Took {now - BEGIN now} seconds";

11.397003949278504
Took 0.2375065 seconds