Algorithm to find Largest prime factor of a number

Here's the best algorithm I know of (in Python)

def prime_factors(n):
    """Returns all the prime factors of a positive integer"""
    factors = []
    d = 2
    while n > 1:
        while n % d == 0:
            factors.append(d)
            n /= d
        d = d + 1

    return factors


pfs = prime_factors(1000)
largest_prime_factor = max(pfs) # The largest element in the prime factor list

The above method runs in O(n) in the worst case (when the input is a prime number).

EDIT:
Below is the O(sqrt(n)) version, as suggested in the comment. Here is the code, once more.

def prime_factors(n):
    """Returns all the prime factors of a positive integer"""
    factors = []
    d = 2
    while n > 1:
        while n % d == 0:
            factors.append(d)
            n /= d
        d = d + 1
        if d*d > n:
            if n > 1: factors.append(n)
            break
    return factors


pfs = prime_factors(1000)
largest_prime_factor = max(pfs) # The largest element in the prime factor list

Actually there are several more efficient ways to find factors of big numbers (for smaller ones trial division works reasonably well).

One method which is very fast if the input number has two factors very close to its square root is known as Fermat factorisation. It makes use of the identity N = (a + b)(a - b) = a^2 - b^2 and is easy to understand and implement. Unfortunately it's not very fast in general.

The best known method for factoring numbers up to 100 digits long is the Quadratic sieve. As a bonus, part of the algorithm is easily done with parallel processing.

Yet another algorithm I've heard of is Pollard's Rho algorithm. It's not as efficient as the Quadratic Sieve in general but seems to be easier to implement.

Once you've decided on how to split a number into two factors, here is the fastest algorithm I can think of to find the largest prime factor of a number:

Create a priority queue which initially stores the number itself. Each iteration, you remove the highest number from the queue, and attempt to split it into two factors (not allowing 1 to be one of those factors, of course). If this step fails, the number is prime and you have your answer! Otherwise you add the two factors into the queue and repeat.

My answer is based on Triptych's, but improves a lot on it. It is based on the fact that beyond 2 and 3, all the prime numbers are of the form 6n-1 or 6n+1.

var largestPrimeFactor;
if(n mod 2 == 0)
{
    largestPrimeFactor = 2;
    n = n / 2 while(n mod 2 == 0);
}
if(n mod 3 == 0)
{
    largestPrimeFactor = 3;
    n = n / 3 while(n mod 3 == 0);
}

multOfSix = 6;
while(multOfSix - 1 <= n)
{
    if(n mod (multOfSix - 1) == 0)
    {
        largestPrimeFactor = multOfSix - 1;
        n = n / largestPrimeFactor while(n mod largestPrimeFactor == 0);
    }

    if(n mod (multOfSix + 1) == 0)
    {
        largestPrimeFactor = multOfSix + 1;
        n = n / largestPrimeFactor while(n mod largestPrimeFactor == 0);
    }
    multOfSix += 6;
}

I recently wrote a blog article explaining how this algorithm works.

I would venture that a method in which there is no need for a test for primality (and no sieve construction) would run faster than one which does use those. If that is the case, this is probably the fastest algorithm here.

JavaScript code:

'option strict';

function largestPrimeFactor(val, divisor = 2) { 
    let square = (val) => Math.pow(val, 2);

    while ((val % divisor) != 0 && square(divisor) <= val) {
        divisor++;
    }

    return square(divisor) <= val
        ? largestPrimeFactor(val / divisor, divisor)
        : val;
}

Usage Example:

let result = largestPrimeFactor(600851475143);

Here is an example of the code:

Similar to @Triptych answer but also different. In this example list or dictionary is not used. Code is written in Ruby

def largest_prime_factor(number)
  i = 2
  while number > 1
    if number % i == 0
      number /= i;
    else
      i += 1
    end
  end
  return i
end

largest_prime_factor(600851475143)
# => 6857