Harmonic series sum function in R - r

Question

I am trying to write a function which takes a positive real number and keeps adding terms of the harmonic series until the total sum exceeds the initial argument.
I need my function to display the total number of terms of the series that were added.
Here's my code so far:
harmonic<-function(n){
x<-c(0,1)
while (length(x) < n) {
position <- length(x)
new <- 1/(x[position] + x[position-1])
x <- c(x,new)
}
return(x)
}
I apologise for the errors in my code, unfortunately I have been working with R only for a month and this is the first time that I am using the while loop and I couldn't find any useful information around.
Thank you, I'd really appreciate your help.

Answer 1

Here's an attempt based on some info from this post at maths.stackexchange: https://math.stackexchange.com/q/496116
I can't speak as to whether it is highly accurate in all circumstances or even the best or an appropriate way to go about this. Caveat emptor.
harmsum.cnt <- function(x,tol=1e-09) {
em.cons <- 0.577215664901533
difffun <- function(x,n) x - (log(n) + em.cons + 1/(2*n) - 1/(12*n^2))
ceiling(uniroot(difffun, c(1, 1e10), tol = tol, x = x)$root)
}
Seems to work alright though:
harmsum.cnt(7)
#[1] 616
harmsum.cnt(15)
#[1] 1835421
Compare:
tail(cumsum(1/1:616),1); tail(cumsum(1/1:615),1)
#7.001274
#6.999651
dput(tail(cumsum(1/1:1835421),1)); dput(tail(cumsum(1/1:1835420),1))
#15.0000003782678
#14.9999998334336

Answer 2

This is a partial answer, which I'll try to fill in later. On the assumption that you want an exact answer, rather than the excellent approximation formula thelatemail found, there are a few tools to consider.
First, use of a hash-table or memoise methods will allow you to save previous calculations, thus saving a lot of time.
Second, since the sum of a (finite) sequence is independent of the grouping, you can calculate, e.g. the first N terms and the second (N+1):2N terms independently. Use parallel package to divide and conquer.
Third, before you get too deep into the morass, check the limits of floating-point accuracy via a call to .Machine$double.eps Once your 1/n term comes close to that, you'll need to switch over to gmp and Rmpfr to get full accuracy in your calculations.
Now, just to clarify what you "should" be doing, a correct loop is
mylimit <- [pick a value]
harmsum<-0
for(k in 1:N){
harmsum <- harmsum + 1/k
if (harmsum >= mylimit) break
}
(or similar setup using while)