Overcoming heap overflow issues

Question

I tried to solve problems from Project Euler. I know my method would work logically (it returns answers to the small scale problem almost instantly). However, it scales horribly. I already attempted changing the .ini file, but to no avail.

Here's my code:

public class Number28 {

    static int SIZE = 101; //this should be an odd number, i accidentally posted 100
    /**
     * @param args
     */
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        double start = System.currentTimeMillis();
        long spiral[][]= spiral(SIZE);
        long sum = 0;
        for(int i = 0; i < SIZE; i++)
        {
            sum += spiral[i][i];
            sum += spiral[i][SIZE - 1 - i];
        }
        System.out.println(sum - 1);
        double time = System.currentTimeMillis() - start;
        System.out.println(time);

    }
    public static long[][] spiral(int size){
        long spiral[][]= new long[size][size];
        if(size == 1){
            spiral[0][0] = 1;
            return spiral;
        }
        else{
            long subspiral[][]= new long[size - 2][size - 2];
            subspiral = spiral(size - 2);
            for(int r = 0; r < size - 2; r++){
                for(int c = 0; c < size - 2; c++){
                    spiral[r + 1][c + 1] = subspiral[r][c];
                }
            }
            long counter = subspiral[0][size - 3];
            for(int r = 1; r < size ; r++){
                counter++;
                spiral[r][size - 1] = counter;
            }
            for(int c = size - 2; c >= 0; c--){
                counter++;
                spiral[size - 1][c] = counter;
            }
            for(int r = size - 2 ; r >= 0 ; r--){
                counter++;
                spiral[r][0] = counter;
            }
            for(int c = 1; c < size ; c++){
                counter++;
                spiral[0][c] = counter;
            }

            return spiral;
        }
    }
}

Here's the edited code, worked like a gem:

public class Number28 {
    static int SIZE = 1001;
    static long spiral[][]= new long[SIZE][SIZE];

    /**
     * @param args
     */
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        double start = System.currentTimeMillis();
        long spiral[][]= spiral(SIZE);
        long sum = 0;
        for(int i = 0; i < SIZE; i++)
        {
            sum += spiral[i][i];
            sum += spiral[i][SIZE - 1 - i];
        }
        System.out.println(sum - 1);
        double time = System.currentTimeMillis() - start;
        System.out.println(time);

    }
    public static long[][] spiral(int size){
        if(size == 1){
            spiral[SIZE / 2][SIZE / 2] = 1;
            return spiral;
        }
        else{
            long subspiral[][]= spiral(size - 2);
            int edge = (SIZE - size) / 2;
            long counter = subspiral[edge + 1][edge + size - 2];

              for(int r = 1; r < size ; r++){
                  counter++;
                  spiral[edge + r][edge + size - 1] = counter;
          }
          for(int c = size - 2; c >= 0; c--){
                  counter++;
                  spiral[edge + size - 1][edge + c] = counter;
          }
          for(int r = size - 2 ; r >= 0 ; r--){
                  counter++;
                  spiral[edge + r][edge] = counter;
          }
          for(int c = 1; c < size ; c++){
                  counter++;
                  spiral[edge][edge + c] = counter;
          }
            return spiral;
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

As a general piece of Project Euler advice, if your solution doesn't scale, there's almost certainly a better way to solve it. If you've used the same type of solution on an earlier problem you can go through the posts from other users on the earlier question to get ideas for solving the problem in different ways.