[python] Modular multiplicative inverse function in Python

Does some standard Python module contain a function to compute modular multiplicative inverse of a number, i.e. a number y = invmod(x, p) such that x*y == 1 (mod p)? Google doesn't seem to give any good hints on this.

Of course, one can come up with home-brewed 10-liner of extended Euclidean algorithm, but why reinvent the wheel.

For example, Java's BigInteger has modInverse method. Doesn't Python have something similar?

This question is related to python algorithm

The answer is


To figure out the modular multiplicative inverse I recommend using the Extended Euclidean Algorithm like this:

def multiplicative_inverse(a, b):
    origA = a
    X = 0
    prevX = 1
    Y = 1
    prevY = 0
    while b != 0:
        temp = b
        quotient = a/b
        b = a%b
        a = temp
        temp = X
        a = prevX - quotient * X
        prevX = temp
        temp = Y
        Y = prevY - quotient * Y
        prevY = temp

    return origA + prevY

The code above will not run in python3 and is less efficient compared to the GCD variants. However, this code is very transparent. It triggered me to create a more compact version:

def imod(a, n):
 c = 1
 while (c % a > 0):
     c += n
 return c // a

Many of the links above are broken as for 1/23/2017. I found this implementation: https://courses.csail.mit.edu/6.857/2016/files/ffield.py


Here is a one-liner for CodeFights; it is one of the shortest solutions:

MMI = lambda A, n,s=1,t=0,N=0: (n < 2 and t%N or MMI(n, A%n, t, s-A//n*t, N or n),-1)[n<1]

It will return -1 if A has no multiplicative inverse in n.

Usage:

MMI(23, 99) # returns 56
MMI(18, 24) # return -1

The solution uses the Extended Euclidean Algorithm.


Python 3.8+

y = pow(x, -1, p)

Python 3.7 and earlier

Maybe someone will find this useful (from wikibooks):

def egcd(a, b):
    if a == 0:
        return (b, 0, 1)
    else:
        g, y, x = egcd(b % a, a)
        return (g, x - (b // a) * y, y)

def modinv(a, m):
    g, x, y = egcd(a, m)
    if g != 1:
        raise Exception('modular inverse does not exist')
    else:
        return x % m

Here is a concise 1-liner that does it, without using any external libraries.

# Given 0<a<b, returns the unique c such that 0<c<b and a*c == gcd(a,b) (mod b).
# In particular, if a,b are relatively prime, returns the inverse of a modulo b.
def invmod(a,b): return 0 if a==0 else 1 if b%a==0 else b - invmod(b%a,a)*b//a

Note that this is really just egcd, streamlined to return only the single coefficient of interest.


I try different solutions from this thread and in the end I use this one:

def egcd(a, b):
    lastremainder, remainder = abs(a), abs(b)
    x, lastx, y, lasty = 0, 1, 1, 0
    while remainder:
        lastremainder, (quotient, remainder) = remainder, divmod(lastremainder, remainder)
        x, lastx = lastx - quotient*x, x
        y, lasty = lasty - quotient*y, y
    return lastremainder, lastx * (-1 if a < 0 else 1), lasty * (-1 if b < 0 else 1)


def modinv(a, m):
    g, x, y = self.egcd(a, m)
    if g != 1:
        raise ValueError('modinv for {} does not exist'.format(a))
    return x % m

Modular_inverse in Python


Well, I don't have a function in python but I have a function in C which you can easily convert to python, in the below c function extended euclidian algorithm is used to calculate inverse mod.

int imod(int a,int n){
int c,i=1;
while(1){
    c = n * i + 1;
    if(c%a==0){
        c = c/a;
        break;
    }
    i++;
}
return c;}

Python Function

def imod(a,n):
  i=1
  while True:
    c = n * i + 1;
    if(c%a==0):
      c = c/a
      break;
    i = i+1

  return c

Reference to the above C function is taken from the following link C program to find Modular Multiplicative Inverse of two Relatively Prime Numbers


As of 3.8 pythons pow() function can take a modulus and a negative integer. See here. Their case for how to use it is

>>> pow(38, -1, 97)
23
>>> 23 * 38 % 97 == 1
True

Sympy, a python module for symbolic mathematics, has a built-in modular inverse function if you don't want to implement your own (or if you're using Sympy already):

from sympy import mod_inverse

mod_inverse(11, 35) # returns 16
mod_inverse(15, 35) # raises ValueError: 'inverse of 15 (mod 35) does not exist'

This doesn't seem to be documented on the Sympy website, but here's the docstring: Sympy mod_inverse docstring on Github


Here is my code, it might be sloppy but it seems to work for me anyway.

# a is the number you want the inverse for
# b is the modulus

def mod_inverse(a, b):
    r = -1
    B = b
    A = a
    eq_set = []
    full_set = []
    mod_set = []

    #euclid's algorithm
    while r!=1 and r!=0:
        r = b%a
        q = b//a
        eq_set = [r, b, a, q*-1]
        b = a
        a = r
        full_set.append(eq_set)

    for i in range(0, 4):
        mod_set.append(full_set[-1][i])

    mod_set.insert(2, 1)
    counter = 0

    #extended euclid's algorithm
    for i in range(1, len(full_set)):
        if counter%2 == 0:
            mod_set[2] = full_set[-1*(i+1)][3]*mod_set[4]+mod_set[2]
            mod_set[3] = full_set[-1*(i+1)][1]

        elif counter%2 != 0:
            mod_set[4] = full_set[-1*(i+1)][3]*mod_set[2]+mod_set[4]
            mod_set[1] = full_set[-1*(i+1)][1]

        counter += 1

    if mod_set[3] == B:
        return mod_set[2]%B
    return mod_set[4]%B

You might also want to look at the gmpy module. It is an interface between Python and the GMP multiple-precision library. gmpy provides an invert function that does exactly what you need:

>>> import gmpy
>>> gmpy.invert(1234567, 1000000007)
mpz(989145189)

Updated answer

As noted by @hyh , the gmpy.invert() returns 0 if the inverse does not exist. That matches the behavior of GMP's mpz_invert() function. gmpy.divm(a, b, m) provides a general solution to a=bx (mod m).

>>> gmpy.divm(1, 1234567, 1000000007)
mpz(989145189)
>>> gmpy.divm(1, 0, 5)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ZeroDivisionError: not invertible
>>> gmpy.divm(1, 4, 8)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ZeroDivisionError: not invertible
>>> gmpy.divm(1, 4, 9)
mpz(7)

divm() will return a solution when gcd(b,m) == 1 and raises an exception when the multiplicative inverse does not exist.

Disclaimer: I'm the current maintainer of the gmpy library.

Updated answer 2

gmpy2 now properly raises an exception when the inverse does not exists:

>>> import gmpy2

>>> gmpy2.invert(0,5)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ZeroDivisionError: invert() no inverse exists

from the cpython implementation source code:

def invmod(a, n):
    b, c = 1, 0
    while n:
        q, r = divmod(a, n)
        a, b, c, n = n, c, b - q*c, r
    # at this point a is the gcd of the original inputs
    if a == 1:
        return b
    raise ValueError("Not invertible")

according to the comment above this code, it can return small negative values, so you could potentially check if negative and add n when negative before returning b.


If your modulus is prime (you call it p) then you may simply compute:

y = x**(p-2) mod p  # Pseudocode

Or in Python proper:

y = pow(x, p-2, p)

Here is someone who has implemented some number theory capabilities in Python: http://www.math.umbc.edu/~campbell/Computers/Python/numbthy.html

Here is an example done at the prompt:

m = 1000000007
x = 1234567
y = pow(x,m-2,m)
y
989145189L
x*y
1221166008548163L
x*y % m
1L