Problem 056:

object Euler56 extends EulerApp {
  def answer = (for { a <- 90 to 100; b <- 90 to 100 }
                yield BigInt(a).pow(b).toString.map(_-'0').sum) max
}

I’m in Switzerland at the moment, so my mind naturally turns to Project Euler.

I have made some changes to my problem harness. Previously, I relied on Scala’s Application class’s jiggery pokery to stuff your whole program into a static initializer and execute it. This interacts poorly with a HotSpot optimization optimization which dictates that it not optimize code run in a static initializer. This led me to stick some of my solutions in a main method, which grated against my delicate sensibilities. Now EulerApp defines an abstract answer method to be implemented by the solution class. It then runs said method in a standard main method, yielding optimized (just-in-time) compilation and a reasonable aesthetic to boot.

This particular problem is pretty simple. We rely on BigInt to do the heavy lifting, and simply do a brute force scan of the likely candidates (values between 90⁹⁰ and 100¹⁰⁰).