Fibonacci number

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The Fibonacci Sequence is the series of numbers:

 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, …

The idea is to add the two last numbers in order to produce the next value.

generation

The following implementations show the principle of how to calculate Fibonacci numbers. They lack of input checks. Depending on your preferences you might either want to generate a run-time error (e. g. by {$rangeChecks on} or utilizing system.runError), raise an exception, or simply return a bogus value indicating something went wrong.

recursive implementation

 3type
 4	/// domain for Fibonacci function
 5	/// where result is within nativeUInt
 6	// You can not name it fibonacciDomain,
 7	// since the Fibonacci function itself
 8	// is defined for all whole numbers
 9	// but the result beyond F(n) exceeds high(nativeUInt).
10	fibonacciLeftInverseRange =
11		{$ifdef CPU64} 0..93 {$else} 0..47 {$endif};
12
13{**
14	implements Fibonacci sequence recursively
15	
16	\param n the index of the Fibonacci number to retrieve
17	\returns the Fibonacci value at n
18}
19function fibonacci(const n: fibonacciLeftInverseRange): nativeUInt;
20begin
21	// optimization: then part gets executed most of the time
22	if n > 1 then
23	begin
24		fibonacci := fibonacci(n - 2) + fibonacci(n - 1);
25	end
26	else
27	begin
28		// since the domain is restricted to non-negative integers
29		// we can bluntly assign the result to n
30		fibonacci := n;
31	end;
32end;

iterative implementation

This one is preferable for its run-time behavior.

13{**
14	implements Fibonacci sequence iteratively
15	
16	\param n the index of the Fibonacci number to calculate
17	\returns the Fibonacci value at n
18}
19function fibonacci(const n: fibonacciLeftInverseRange): nativeUInt;
20type
21	/// more meaningful identifiers than simple integers
22	relativePosition = (previous, current, next);
23var
24	/// temporary iterator variable
25	i: longword;
26	/// holds preceding fibonacci values
27	f: array[relativePosition] of nativeUInt;
28begin
29	f[previous] := 0;
30	f[current] := 1;
31	
32	// note, in Pascal for-loop-limits are inclusive
33	for i := 1 to n do
34	begin
35		f[next] := f[previous] + f[current];
36		f[previous] := f[current];
37		f[current] := f[next];
38	end;
39	
40	// assign to previous, bc f[current] = f[next] for next iteration
41	fibonacci := f[previous];
42end;

lookup

While calculating the Fibonacci number every time it is needed requires almost no space, it takes a split second of time. Applications heavily relying on Fibonacci numbers definitely want to use a lookup table instead. And yet in general, do not calculate what is already a known fact. Since the Fibonacci sequence doesn’t change, actually calculating it is a textbook demonstration but not intended for production use.

Nevertheless an actual implementation is omitted here, since everyone wants to have it differently, a different flavor.

see also

• Fibonacci numbers in the on-line encyclopedia of integer sequences
• Some assembly routine which uses the C calling convention that calculates the nth Fibonacci number
• Fibonacci sequence § “Pascal” on RosettaCode.org
• GNU multiple precision arithmetic library’s functions mpz_fib_ui and mpz_fib2_ui
• Lucas number, a similar series with different initial values
• Tao Yue Solution to Fibonacci Sequence Problem