Skip to main content
`Ctrl`+`K`
scipy.special.

# factorial2

scipy.special.factorial2(n, exact=False, extend='zero')

  Double factorial.

  This is the factorial with every second value skipped. E.g., `7!! = 7 * 5 * 3 * 1`. It can be approximated numerically as:

      n!! = 2 ** (n / 2) * gamma(n / 2 + 1) * sqrt(2 / pi)  n odd
          = 2 ** (n / 2) * gamma(n / 2 + 1)                 n even
          = 2 ** (n / 2) * (n / 2)!                         n even

  The formula for odd `n` is the basis for the complex extension.

  Parameters:
    n int or float or complex (or array_like thereof)

      Input values for `n!!`. Non-integer values require `extend='complex'`. By default, the return value for `n < 0` is 0.

    exact bool, optional

      If `exact` is set to True, calculate the answer exactly using integer arithmetic, otherwise use above approximation (faster, but yields floats instead of integers). Default is False.

    extend string, optional

      One of `'zero'` or `'complex'`; this determines how values `n<0` are handled - by default they are 0, but it is possible to opt into the complex extension of the double factorial. This also enables passing complex values to `n`.

      Warning

      Using the `'complex'` extension also changes the values of the double factorial for even integers, reducing them by a factor of `sqrt(2/pi) ~= 0.79`, see [1].

  Returns:
    nf int or float or complex or ndarray

      Double factorial of `n`, as integer, float or complex (depending on `exact` and `extend`). Array inputs are returned as arrays.

  References

  [1]

  Complex extension to double factorial https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_factorial#Complex_arguments

  Examples

      >>> from scipy.special import factorial2
      >>> factorial2(7, exact=False)
      array(105.00000000000001)
      >>> factorial2(7, exact=True)
      105