>>> from functools import lru_cache >>> @lru_cache(maxsize=1024) def _ids(nt): if nt in {('1',), ('8', '9')}: return nt else: return _ids(tuple(sorted(str(sum(int(d) ** 2 for d in nt))))) >>> def ids(n): return int(''.join(_ids(tuple(sorted(str(n)))))) >>> ids(1), ids(15) (1, 89) >>> [ids(x) for x in range(1, 21)] [1, 89, 89, 89, 89, 89, 1, 89, 89, 1, 89, 89, 1, 89, 89, 89, 89, 89, 1, 89] >>> sum(ids(x) == 89 for x in range(1, 100000000)) 85744333 >>> _ids.cache_info() CacheInfo(hits=99991418, misses=5867462, maxsize=1024, currsize=1024) >>>