I have a series of values that are each being stored as UInt16. Each of these numbers represents a bitmask - these numbers are commands that have been sent to a microprocessor telling it which pins to set high or low. I would like to parse this arrow of commands to find out which pins were being set high each time in such a way that is easier to analyse later.
Consider the example value 0x3c00, which in decimal is 15360 and in binary is 0011110000000000. Currently I have the following function
function read_message(hex_rep)
return findall.(x -> x .== '1',bitstring(hex_rep))
end
Which gets called on every element of the array of UInt16. Is there a better/more efficient way of doing this?
The best approach probably depends on how you want to handle vectors of hex-values. But here's an approach for processing a single hex which is much faster than the one in the OP:
function readmsg(x::UInt16)
N = count_ones(x)
inds = Vector{Int}(undef, N)
if N == 0
return inds
end
k = trailing_zeros(x)
x >>= k + 1
i = N - 1
inds[N] = n = 16 - k
while i >= 1
(x, r) = divrem(x, 0x2)
n -= 1
if r == 1
inds[i] = n
i -= 1
end
end
return inds
end
I can suggest padding your vector into a Vector{UInt64} and use that to manually construct a BitVector. The following should mostly work (even for input element types other than UInt16), but I haven't taken into account specific endianness you might want to respect:
julia> function read_messages(msgs)
bytes = reinterpret(UInt8, msgs)
N = length(bytes)
nchunks, remaining = divrem(N, sizeof(UInt64))
padded_bytes = zeros(UInt8, sizeof(UInt64) * cld(N, sizeof(UInt64)))
copyto!(padded_bytes, bytes)
b = BitVector(undef, N * 8)
b.chunks = reinterpret(UInt64, padded_bytes)
return b
end
read_messages (generic function with 1 method)
julia> msgs
2-element Vector{UInt16}:
0x3c00
0x8000
julia> read_messages(msgs)
32-element BitVector:
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
⋮
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
julia> read_messages(msgs) |> findall
5-element Vector{Int64}:
11
12
13
14
32
julia> bitstring.(msgs)
2-element Vector{String}:
"0011110000000000"
"1000000000000000"
(Getting rid of the unnecessary allocation of the undef bit vector would require some black magic, I belive.)
How to find generators of a finite field Fp[x]/f(x) with f(x) is a irreducible polynomial over Fp.
Input: p (prime number), n (positive number), f (irreducible polynomial)
Output: g (generator)
I have p = 2, n =3, f = x^3 + x + 1
I am a newbie so I don't know where to start.
Do you have any solution? Plese help me step by step
To find a generator (primitive element) α(x) of a field GF(p^n), start with α(x) = x + 0, then try higher values until a primitive element α(x) is found.
For smaller fields, a brute force test to verify that powers of α(x) will generate every non-zero number of a field can be done.
cnt = 0
m = 1
do
cnt = cnt + 1
m = (m*α)%f(x)
while (m != 1)
if cnt == (p^n-1) then α(x) is a generator for GF(p^n).
For a faster approach with larger fields, find all prime factors of p^n-1. Let q = any of those prime factors. If α(x) is a generator for GF(p^n), then while operating in GF(p^n):
α(x)^(p^n-1) % f(x) == 1
α(x)^((p^n-1)/q) % f(x) != 1, for all q that are prime factors of p^n-1
In this case GF(2^3) is a 3 bit field and since 2^3-1 = 7, which is prime, then it's just two tests, shown in hex: x^3 + x + 1 = b (hex)
α(x)^7 % b == 1
α(x)^1 % b != 1
α(x) can be any of {2,3,4,5,6,7} = {x,x+1,x^2,...,x^2+x+1}
As another example, consider GF(2^4), f(x) = x^4 + x^3 + x^2 + x + 1 (hex 1f). The prime factors of 2^4-1 = 15 are 3 and 5, and 15/3 = 5 and 15/5 = 3. So the three tests are:
α(x)^f % 1f == 1
α(x)^5 % 1f != 1
α(x)^3 % 1f != 1
α(x) can be any of {3,5,6,7,9,a,b,e}
For larger fields, finding all prime factors of p^n-1 requires special algorithms and big number math. Wolfram alpha can handle up to around 2^128-1:
https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=factor%282%5E64-1%29
This web page can factor large numbers and includes an explanation and source code:
https://www.alpertron.com.ar/ECM.HTM
To test for α(x)^(large number) = 1 or != 1, use exponentiation by repeated squaring while performing the math in GF(p^n).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exponentiation_by_squaring
For large fields, where p^n is greater than 2^32 (4 billion), a primitive polynomial where α(x) = x is searched for, using the test mentioned above.
We are supposed to multiply two 8 bit numbers using shift and add operations of 8085 microprocessor. Answer should be a 16 bit number. Use of shift and add operation is compulsory
To understand the solution you must be familiar with Rotate instructions in 8085,particularly for this solution you need to understand two things
RRC instruction rotates bits to the right and LSB can be checked from carry flag
multiplying number by 2(10 in binary) results in left shif by one bit (verify yourself)
adding number with itself is equivaent to multiplying number by 2(10 in binary) and hence also shift bits by 1 bit
#ORG 8000
//initializing operands
LXI H,7000H //data is stored in 7000H
MOV E,M
MVI D,00H
INX H
MOV A,M
MVI C,08H
LXI H, 0000H
//multiplication algorithm starts here
LOOP : RRC
JNC SKIP
DAD D
//left shift is performed by adding number with itself
//three lines just below this comment is shifting DE pair to left by 1 bit
SKIP: XCHG //exchange HL and DE pair
DAD H //Add HL with itself and store in HL
XCHG //exchange HL and DE
DCR C
JNZ LOOP
SHLD 7050H
HLT
#ORG7000
#DB 25,2A
Suppose we want to multiply two integers 27 and 23. Since 23 (10111 in binary) can be written as
2*11 + 1 = 2*(2*5 + 1) + 1 = ... = 2*(2*(2*(2*(2*0 + 1) + 0) + 1) + 1) + 1. Thus, x * 23 can be expressed as: 2*(2*(2*(2*(2*0 + x) + 0) + x) + x) + x. Observe that the addend terms in each step follows the binary representation of 23 (1, 0, 1, 1, 1). With this observation, we can write the following pseudocode to perform the multiplication x * y using shift and add operations.
let x be the first operand and y be the second one
set sum = 0
repeat
set sum = sum * 2
left shift y by one place
if the overflow bit after the shift is set then
set sum = sum + x
until y ≠ 0
output the sum as the result of x*y
Let x=27 (0x1B) and y=23 (0x17) be two 8-bit intergers, the follwing microprogram performs the required multiplication. As the multiplication may require 16 bits to store the result we use the HL register pair for the calculation.
LXI D,001BH ; DE <- 27(x)
MVI A,17H ; A <- 23(y)
LXI H,0000H ; HL <- 0(sum)
LOOP: DAD H ; sum <- sum*2
STC
CMC ; clear the carry flag before rotate
RAL ; y <- y<<1
JNC SKIP ; if overflow bit from y was not set
DAD D ; sum <- sum + x
SKIP: ORA A ; to update the zero flag
JNZ LOOP
HLT
The result, 27*23 = 621 (0x026D), is available in the HL register pair.
For example, suppose I have x XOR y = y XOR x = z. Is it possible to have something like a XOR b = z?
Short answer: Yes
Long answer:
XOR is a binary operation, it works on the individual bits and it's commutative.
It has the truth table:
A B Q
0 0 0
0 1 1
1 0 1
1 1 0
As the number is made up of these bits then the result will be the same as long as for each bit position the two bits have the same result.
For example take the 2 eight bit numbers 113 and 42
113 = 01110001
42 = 00101010
XOR = 01011011 = 91
but if I swap the fourth bit from the left I get
97 = 01100001
58 = 00111010
XOR = 01011011 = 91
So yes again...
Yes.
z = y because x ^ y ^ x = y
So it is entirely possible for a combination a ^ b = y = z.
In fact, for every a there exists a b such that a ^ b = z. To calculate that, b = z ^ a.
Be aware that XOR is commutative: this means that x ^ y = y ^ x.
Yes. As a degenerate proof, XORing a number with itself always results in 0.
XOR, will return true if both parameters are different, assuming that the parameters are Boolean values anyway. This is different from or, which will return true if either parameter is true, and NOR, which will return true only if both of them are false.
Is there an algorithm that can calculate the digits of a repeating-decimal ratio without starting at the beginning?
I'm looking for a solution that doesn't use arbitrarily sized integers, since this should work for cases where the decimal expansion may be arbitrarily long.
For example, 33/59 expands to a repeating decimal with 58 digits. If I wanted to verify that, how could I calculate the digits starting at the 58th place?
Edited - with the ratio 2124679 / 2147483647, how to get the hundred digits in the 2147484600th through 2147484700th places.
OK, 3rd try's a charm :)
I can't believe I forgot about modular exponentiation.
So to steal/summarize from my 2nd answer, the nth digit of x/y is the 1st digit of (10n-1x mod y)/y = floor(10 * (10n-1x mod y) / y) mod 10.
The part that takes all the time is the 10n-1 mod y, but we can do that with fast (O(log n)) modular exponentiation. With this in place, it's not worth trying to do the cycle-finding algorithm.
However, you do need the ability to do (a * b mod y) where a and b are numbers that may be as large as y. (if y requires 32 bits, then you need to do 32x32 multiply and then 64-bit % 32-bit modulus, or you need an algorithm that circumvents this limitation. See my listing that follows, since I ran into this limitation with Javascript.)
So here's a new version.
function abmody(a,b,y)
{
var x = 0;
// binary fun here
while (a > 0)
{
if (a & 1)
x = (x + b) % y;
b = (2 * b) % y;
a >>>= 1;
}
return x;
}
function digits2(x,y,n1,n2)
{
// the nth digit of x/y = floor(10 * (10^(n-1)*x mod y) / y) mod 10.
var m = n1-1;
var A = 1, B = 10;
while (m > 0)
{
// loop invariant: 10^(n1-1) = A*(B^m) mod y
if (m & 1)
{
// A = (A * B) % y but javascript doesn't have enough sig. digits
A = abmody(A,B,y);
}
// B = (B * B) % y but javascript doesn't have enough sig. digits
B = abmody(B,B,y);
m >>>= 1;
}
x = x % y;
// A = (A * x) % y;
A = abmody(A,x,y);
var answer = "";
for (var i = n1; i <= n2; ++i)
{
var digit = Math.floor(10*A/y)%10;
answer += digit;
A = (A * 10) % y;
}
return answer;
}
(You'll note that the structures of abmody() and the modular exponentiation are the same; both are based on Russian peasant multiplication.)
And results:
js>digits2(2124679,214748367,214748300,214748400)
20513882650385881630475914166090026658968726872786883636698387559799232373208220950057329190307649696
js>digits2(122222,990000,100,110)
65656565656
js>digits2(1,7,1,7)
1428571
js>digits2(1,7,601,607)
1428571
js>digits2(2124679,2147483647,2147484600,2147484700)
04837181235122113132440537741612893408915444001981729642479554583541841517920532039329657349423345806
edit: (I'm leaving post here for posterity. But please don't upvote it anymore: it may be theoretically useful but it's not really practical. I have posted another answer which is much more useful from a practical point of view, doesn't require any factoring, and doesn't require the use of bignums.)
#Daniel Bruckner has the right approach, I think. (with a few additional twists required)
Maybe there's a simpler method, but the following will always work:
Let's use the examples q = x/y = 33/57820 and 44/65 in addition to 33/59, for reasons that may become clear shortly.
Step 1: Factor the denominator (specifically factor out 2's and 5's)
Write q = x/y = x/(2a25a5z). Factors of 2 and 5 in the denominator do not cause repeated decimals. So the remaining factor z is coprime to 10. In fact, the next step requires factoring z, so you might as well factor the whole thing.
Calculate a10 = max(a2, a5) which is the smallest exponent of 10 that is a multiple of the factors of 2 and 5 in y.
In our example 57820 = 2 * 2 * 5 * 7 * 7 * 59, so a2 = 2, a5 = 1, a10 = 2, z = 7 * 7 * 59 = 2891.
In our example 33/59, 59 is a prime and contains no factors of 2 or 5, so a2 = a5 = a10 = 0.
In our example 44/65, 65 = 5*13, and a2 = 0, a5 = a10 = 1.
Just for reference I found a good online factoring calculator here. (even does totients which is important for the next step)
Step 2: Use Euler's Theorem or Carmichael's Theorem.
What we want is a number n such that 10n - 1 is divisible by z, or in other words, 10n ≡ 1 mod z. Euler's function φ(z) and Carmichael's function λ(z) will both give you valid values for n, with λ(z) giving you the smaller number and φ(z) being perhaps a little easier to calculate. This isn't too hard, it just means factoring z and doing a little math.
φ(2891) = 7 * 6 * 58 = 2436
λ(2891) = lcm(7*6, 58) = 1218
This means that 102436 ≡ 101218 ≡ 1 (mod 2891).
For the simpler fraction 33/59, φ(59) = λ(59) = 58, so 1058 ≡ 1 (mod 59).
For 44/65 = 44/(5*13), φ(13) = λ(13) = 12.
So what? Well, the period of the repeating decimal must divide both φ(z) and λ(z), so they effectively give you upper bounds on the period of the repeating decimal.
Step 3: More number crunching
Let's use n = λ(z). If we subtract Q' = 10a10x/y from Q'' = 10(a10 + n)x/y, we get:
m = 10a10(10n - 1)x/y
which is an integer because 10a10 is a multiple of the factors of 2 and 5 of y, and 10n-1 is a multiple of the remaining factors of y.
What we've done here is to shift left the original number q by a10 places to get Q', and shift left q by a10 + n places to get Q'', which are repeating decimals, but the difference between them is an integer we can calculate.
Then we can rewrite x/y as m / 10a10 / (10n - 1).
Consider the example q = 44/65 = 44/(5*13)
a10 = 1, and λ(13) = 12, so Q' = 101q and Q'' = 1012+1q.
m = Q'' - Q' = (1012 - 1) * 101 * (44/65) = 153846153846*44 = 6769230769224
so q = 6769230769224 / 10 / (1012 - 1).
The other fractions 33/57820 and 33/59 lead to larger fractions.
Step 4: Find the nonrepeating and repeating decimal parts.
Notice that for k between 1 and 9, k/9 = 0.kkkkkkkkkkkkk...
Similarly note that a 2-digit number kl between 1 and 99, k/99 = 0.klklklklklkl...
This generalizes: for k-digit patterns abc...ij, this number abc...ij/(10k-1) = 0.abc...ijabc...ijabc...ij...
If you follow the pattern, you'll see that what we have to do is to take this (potentially) huge integer m we got in the previous step, and write it as m = s*(10n-1) + r, where 1 ≤ r < 10n-1.
This leads to the final answer:
s is the non-repeating part
r is the repeating part (zero-padded on the left if necessary to ensure that it is n digits)
with a10 =
0, the decimal point is between the
nonrepeating and repeating part; if
a10 > 0 then it is located
a10 places to the left of
the junction between s and r.
For 44/65, we get 6769230769224 = 6 * (1012-1) + 769230769230
s = 6, r = 769230769230, and 44/65 = 0.6769230769230 where the underline here designates the repeated part.
You can make the numbers smaller by finding the smallest value of n in step 2, by starting with the Carmichael function λ(z) and seeing if any of its factors lead to values of n such that 10n ≡ 1 (mod z).
update: For the curious, the Python interpeter seems to be the easiest way to calculate with bignums. (pow(x,y) calculates xy, and // and % are integer division and remainder, respectively.) Here's an example:
>>> N = pow(10,12)-1
>>> m = N*pow(10,1)*44//65
>>> m
6769230769224
>>> r=m%N
>>> r
769230769230
>>> s=m//N
>>> s
6
>>> 44/65
0.67692307692307696
>>> N = pow(10,58)-1
>>> m=N*33//59
>>> m
5593220338983050847457627118644067796610169491525423728813
>>> r=m%N
>>> r
5593220338983050847457627118644067796610169491525423728813
>>> s=m//N
>>> s
0
>>> 33/59
0.55932203389830504
>>> N = pow(10,1218)-1
>>> m = N*pow(10,2)*33//57820
>>> m
57073676928398478035281909373919059149083362158422691110342442061570390868211691
45624351435489450017295053614666205465236942234520927014873746108612936700103770
32168799723279142165340712556208924247665167762020062262193012798339674852992044
27533725354548599100657212037357315807679003804911795226565202352127291594603943
27222414389484607402282947077135939121411276374956762365963334486336907644413697
68246281563472846765824974057419578000691802144586648218609477689380837080594949
84434451746800415081286751988931165686613628502248356969906606710480802490487720
51193358699411968177101349014181943964026288481494292632307160152196471809062608
09408509166378415773088896575579384296091317883085437564856451054998270494638533
37945347630577654790729851262538913870632998962296783120027672085783465928744379
10757523348322379799377378069872016603251470079557246627464545140089934278796264
26841923209961950882047734347976478727084053960567277758561051539259771705292286
40608785887236250432376340366655136630923555863023175371843652715323417502594258
04219993081978554133517813905223106191629194050501556554825319958491871324801106
88343133863714977516430300933932895191975095122794880664130058803182289865098581
80560359737115185
>>> r=m%N
>>> r
57073676928398478035281909373919059149083362158422691110342442061570390868211691
45624351435489450017295053614666205465236942234520927014873746108612936700103770
32168799723279142165340712556208924247665167762020062262193012798339674852992044
27533725354548599100657212037357315807679003804911795226565202352127291594603943
27222414389484607402282947077135939121411276374956762365963334486336907644413697
68246281563472846765824974057419578000691802144586648218609477689380837080594949
84434451746800415081286751988931165686613628502248356969906606710480802490487720
51193358699411968177101349014181943964026288481494292632307160152196471809062608
09408509166378415773088896575579384296091317883085437564856451054998270494638533
37945347630577654790729851262538913870632998962296783120027672085783465928744379
10757523348322379799377378069872016603251470079557246627464545140089934278796264
26841923209961950882047734347976478727084053960567277758561051539259771705292286
40608785887236250432376340366655136630923555863023175371843652715323417502594258
04219993081978554133517813905223106191629194050501556554825319958491871324801106
88343133863714977516430300933932895191975095122794880664130058803182289865098581
80560359737115185
>>> s=m//N
>>> s
0
>>> 33/57820
0.00057073676928398479
with the overloaded Python % string operator usable for zero-padding, to see the full set of repeated digits:
>>> "%01218d" % r
'0570736769283984780352819093739190591490833621584226911103424420615703908682116
91456243514354894500172950536146662054652369422345209270148737461086129367001037
70321687997232791421653407125562089242476651677620200622621930127983396748529920
44275337253545485991006572120373573158076790038049117952265652023521272915946039
43272224143894846074022829470771359391214112763749567623659633344863369076444136
97682462815634728467658249740574195780006918021445866482186094776893808370805949
49844344517468004150812867519889311656866136285022483569699066067104808024904877
20511933586994119681771013490141819439640262884814942926323071601521964718090626
08094085091663784157730888965755793842960913178830854375648564510549982704946385
33379453476305776547907298512625389138706329989622967831200276720857834659287443
79107575233483223797993773780698720166032514700795572466274645451400899342787962
64268419232099619508820477343479764787270840539605672777585610515392597717052922
86406087858872362504323763403666551366309235558630231753718436527153234175025942
58042199930819785541335178139052231061916291940505015565548253199584918713248011
06883431338637149775164303009339328951919750951227948806641300588031822898650985
8180560359737115185'
As a general technique, rational fractions have a non-repeating part followed by a repeating part, like this:
nnn.xxxxxxxxrrrrrr
xxxxxxxx is the nonrepeating part and rrrrrr is the repeating part.
Determine the length of the nonrepeating part.
If the digit in question is in the nonrepeating part, then calculate it directly using division.
If the digit in question is in the repeating part, calculate its position within the repeating sequence (you now know the lengths of everything), and pick out the correct digit.
The above is a rough outline and would need more precision to implement in an actual algorithm, but it should get you started.
AHA! caffiend: your comment to my other (longer) answer (specifically "duplicate remainders") leads me to a very simple solution that is O(n) where n = the sum of the lengths of the nonrepeating + repeating parts, and requires only integer math with numbers between 0 and 10*y where y is the denominator.
Here's a Javascript function to get the nth digit to the right of the decimal point for the rational number x/y:
function digit(x,y,n)
{
if (n == 0)
return Math.floor(x/y)%10;
return digit(10*(x%y),y,n-1);
}
It's recursive rather than iterative, and is not smart enough to detect cycles (the 10000th digit of 1/3 is obviously 3, but this keeps on going until it reaches the 10000th iteration), but it works at least until the stack runs out of memory.
Basically this works because of two facts:
the nth digit of x/y is the (n-1)th digit of 10x/y (example: the 6th digit of 1/7 is the 5th digit of 10/7 is the 4th digit of 100/7 etc.)
the nth digit of x/y is the nth digit of (x%y)/y (example: the 5th digit of 10/7 is also the 5th digit of 3/7)
We can tweak this to be an iterative routine and combine it with Floyd's cycle-finding algorithm (which I learned as the "rho" method from a Martin Gardner column) to get something that shortcuts this approach.
Here's a javascript function that computes a solution with this approach:
function digit(x,y,n,returnstruct)
{
function kernel(x,y) { return 10*(x%y); }
var period = 0;
var x1 = x;
var x2 = x;
var i = 0;
while (n > 0)
{
n--;
i++;
x1 = kernel(x1,y); // iterate once
x2 = kernel(x2,y);
x2 = kernel(x2,y); // iterate twice
// have both 1x and 2x iterations reached the same state?
if (x1 == x2)
{
period = i;
n = n % period;
i = 0;
// start again in case the nonrepeating part gave us a
// multiple of the period rather than the period itself
}
}
var answer=Math.floor(x1/y);
if (returnstruct)
return {period: period, digit: answer,
toString: function()
{
return 'period='+this.period+',digit='+this.digit;
}};
else
return answer;
}
And an example of running the nth digit of 1/700:
js>1/700
0.0014285714285714286
js>n=10000000
10000000
js>rs=digit(1,700,n,true)
period=6,digit=4
js>n%6
4
js>rs=digit(1,700,4,true)
period=0,digit=4
Same thing for 33/59:
js>33/59
0.559322033898305
js>rs=digit(33,59,3,true)
period=0,digit=9
js>rs=digit(33,59,61,true)
period=58,digit=9
js>rs=digit(33,59,61+58,true)
period=58,digit=9
And 122222/990000 (long nonrepeating part):
js>122222/990000
0.12345656565656565
js>digit(122222,990000,5,true)
period=0,digit=5
js>digit(122222,990000,7,true)
period=6,digit=5
js>digit(122222,990000,9,true)
period=2,digit=5
js>digit(122222,990000,9999,true)
period=2,digit=5
js>digit(122222,990000,10000,true)
period=2,digit=6
Here's another function that finds a stretch of digits:
// find digits n1 through n2 of x/y
function digits(x,y,n1,n2,returnstruct)
{
function kernel(x,y) { return 10*(x%y); }
var period = 0;
var x1 = x;
var x2 = x;
var i = 0;
var answer='';
while (n2 >= 0)
{
// time to print out digits?
if (n1 <= 0)
answer = answer + Math.floor(x1/y);
n1--,n2--;
i++;
x1 = kernel(x1,y); // iterate once
x2 = kernel(x2,y);
x2 = kernel(x2,y); // iterate twice
// have both 1x and 2x iterations reached the same state?
if (x1 == x2)
{
period = i;
if (n1 > period)
{
var jumpahead = n1 - (n1 % period);
n1 -= jumpahead, n2 -= jumpahead;
}
i = 0;
// start again in case the nonrepeating part gave us a
// multiple of the period rather than the period itself
}
}
if (returnstruct)
return {period: period, digits: answer,
toString: function()
{
return 'period='+this.period+',digits='+this.digits;
}};
else
return answer;
}
I've included the results for your answer (assuming that Javascript #'s didn't overflow):
js>digit(1,7,1,7,true)
period=6,digits=1428571
js>digit(1,7,601,607,true)
period=6,digits=1428571
js>1/7
0.14285714285714285
js>digit(2124679,214748367,214748300,214748400,true)
period=1759780,digits=20513882650385881630475914166090026658968726872786883636698387559799232373208220950057329190307649696
js>digit(122222,990000,100,110,true)
period=2,digits=65656565656
Ad hoc I have no good idea. Maybe continued fractions can help. I am going to think a bit about it ...
UPDATE
From Fermat's little theorem and because 39 is prime the following holds. (= indicates congruence)
10^39 = 10 (39)
Because 10 is coprime to 39.
10^(39 - 1) = 1 (39)
10^38 - 1 = 0 (39)
[to be continued tomorow]
I was to tiered to recognize that 39 is not prime ... ^^ I am going to update and the answer in the next days and present the whole idea. Thanks for noting that 39 is not prime.
The short answer for a/b with a < b and an assumed period length p ...
calculate k = (10^p - 1) / b and verify that it is an integer, else a/b has not a period of p
calculate c = k * a
convert c to its decimal represenation and left pad it with zeros to a total length of p
the i-th digit after the decimal point is the (i mod p)-th digit of the paded decimal representation (i = 0 is the first digit after the decimal point - we are developers)
Example
a = 3
b = 7
p = 6
k = (10^6 - 1) / 7
= 142,857
c = 142,857 * 3
= 428,571
Padding is not required and we conclude.
3 ______
- = 0.428571
7