A perfect square is a number that can be expressed as the square of an integer. For example, 4, 9, 16, and 25 are perfect squares because they are equal to 2^2, 3^2, 4^2, and 5^2, respectively.

In this article, we will create a Python program to check if a given number is a perfect square or not.

Understanding the Algorithm

To determine if a number is a perfect square, we need to find the square root of the given number and check if the square root is an integer. If the square root is an integer, then the number is a perfect square; otherwise, it is not.

Here is the step-by-step algorithm:

1. Take the input number from the user.
2. Calculate the square root of the input number using the math library.
3. Check if the square root is an integer by comparing it with its integer value (rounded down).
4. If the square root is equal to its integer value, then the number is a perfect square; otherwise, it is not.

Python Program to Check if a Number is a Perfect Square

import math

def is_perfect_square(num):
    if num < 0:
        return False

    # Calculate the square root
    square_root = math.isqrt(num)

    # Check if the square root is equal to its integer value
    return square_root * square_root == num

# Take input from the user
try:
    number = int(input("Enter a number: "))
    if is_perfect_square(number):
        print(f"{number} is a perfect square.")
    else:
        print(f"{number} is not a perfect square.")
except ValueError:
    print("Invalid input. Please enter a valid integer.")

Explanation of the Code

1. We import the math module to use the isqrt() function, which calculates the integer square root of a given number.

2. The is_perfect_square() function takes an integer num as input and returns True if it is a perfect square, otherwise False.

3. In the is_perfect_square() function, we first check if the input num is less than 0. If it is negative, we immediately return False because negative numbers cannot be perfect squares.

4. Next, we calculate the square root of num using the isqrt() function.

5. Finally, we check if the square of the calculated square_root is equal to num. If the condition is true, then num is a perfect square, and the function returns True. Otherwise, it returns False.

6. In the main program, we take user input for the number to be checked. We then call the is_perfect_square() function and print the result accordingly.

Testing the Program

Let's test the program with some sample inputs:

Input

Enter a number: 16

Output

16 is a perfect square.

That's all! The program works as expected and correctly identifies whether a number is a perfect square or not.