searching for +/-1 sequences

Eric W. Weisstein eww at wolfram.com
Thu Jan 20 16:53:49 CET 2005


Perhaps a dumb question, but how do I search OEIS for sequences containing
a given sequence of +1 and -1s?  If I use superseeker, it matches every
sequence in which the *absolute value* of the terms is 1.  If I try to do
a word search on OEIS including minus signs (e.g., "-1,-1") I get no hits.
If I just search for 1,1,1,1,1,..., I get a maximum of 30 hits, so I have 
no guarantee that just because I don't *see* my sequence in the 30 
returned, mine isn't #31.

Concrete example: is the following sequence in OEIS or not (it arises from
Gauss's generalization of Wilson's theorem)?

-1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, 1, -1, -1, -1, 1, -1, -1, 1, 1, -1, -1, -1, 1, 1,
-1, -1, 1, -1, -1, -1, 1, -1, 1, -1, 1, 1, -1, 1, 1, -1, -1, 1, 1, -1, 1,
-1, 1, 1, -1, -1, 1, -1, -1, 1, 1, -1, -1, 1, 1, 1, -1, -1, 1, -1, -1, 1,
1, 1, 1, -1, 1, 1, 1, -1, 1, -1, -1, 1, 1, 1, 1, -1, 1, -1, -1, -1, 1, 1,
-1, 1, 1, -1, 1, 1, 1, 1, -1, 1, 1, -1, -1, 1, 1

If it is, how do I actually find that out besides downloading the entire 
database and searching it myself?  I checked but didn't see this in the 
FAQ.

Cheers,
-Eric






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