Find simplified square root in Kotlin

Question

I would like to take a number like 96, call squareRoot(96), and get a return of "4√6".

I have tried many different versions of

• generating a list of the prime factors
• finding the perfect divisors
• using recursive implementations
• iterative implementations
• HashMaps
• lists

but nothing seems to work. It is driving me crazy! I can provide the functions I wrote to find the factors, but I don't think they are particularly complicated.

Answer 1

I found an answer in python here (python, square root simplification function) and translated it into Kotlin:

fun squareRoot(n: Int): Pair<Int, Int> {
    var radical = n
    var coefficient = 1
    for (i in 2..radical) {
        if (radical % (i * i) == 0) {
            coefficient *= i
            radical /= i * i
            for (j in 2..radical) {
                if (radical % (j * j) == 0) {
                    coefficient *= j
                    radical /= j * j
                }
            }
        }
    }
    return Pair(coefficient, radical)
}