I have a function for Project Euler #7. Towards the end, I changed the code from primeArray.push(i); to primeArray.unshift(i) and return primeArray[primeArray.length - 1]; to return primeArray[0];. This altered the return. In the former. It returned the correct answer, 104021, while the latter returned 20001, which is not even prime. I do not understand why that is.
function primeFinder(primeTarget) {
//since 2 is the only even prime, putting it here saves us some effort in checking primality by just iterating over the odd numbers
//it also helps the for loop since we are only interested in checking for divisors among previous primes.
let primeArray = [2];
let i = 3;
while (primeArray.length < primeTarget) {
let primeLogger = false;
//We don't need to check for divisibility by 2, so j can equal 1
for (j = 1; j < primeArray.length && primeArray[j] < Math.sqrt(i); j++) {
if (i % primeArray[j] === 0) {
primeLogger = true;
//Since we have found a divisor and changed primeLogger, we can exit the loop
break;
}
}
//Where the break goes to, and also where the for loop goes to once finishes
if (primeLogger === false) {
primeArray.push(i);
}
i += 2;
}
return primeArray[primeArray.length - 1];
}
console.log(primeFinder(10001));
Because primeArray is now in descending order but your loop still searches from start to end; now from biggest towards smaller values. Until it finds something that is >= Math.sqrt(i) which most likely will be the very first check, j=1.
Then it ends the loop with primeLogger === false
so for example, for:
i=9, j=1
primeArray === [7,5,3,2]
primeArray[j] === 5
And since the check 5 < Math.sqrt(9) is false the loop is finished.
Therefore 9 is a prime number and is now added to the start of primeArray.