A359728 a(1) = 1; a(n) is the smallest positive number not among the first k terms where k is the number of times a(n-1) has occurred.

1, 2, 2, 3, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 2, 4, 3, 4, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 2, 4, 5, 3, 4, 5, 3, 4, 5, 4, 5, 4, 5, 4, 5, 4, 5, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 2, 4, 5, 6, 3, 5, 6, 3, 5, 6, 4, 5, 6, 4, 5, 6, 4, 6, 4, 6, 4, 6, 5, 6, 5, 6, 5, 6, 5, 6, 5, 6, 5, 6

Offset

1,2

Comments

A new number is always followed by a 2.

Links

Samuel Harkness, Table of n, a(n) for n = 1..10000

Example

a(4) is 3 because the previous term (2) appears two times; we therefore look at the first 2 terms (1,2). 3 is the smallest number not among them, so a(4) is 3.
a(21) is 5: We see that a(20)=4 appears 9 times; the smallest number not among the first 9 terms (1,2,2,3,2,3,3,3,4) is 5.

Mathematica

K = {1}; While[Length@K < 87, T = Take[K, Count[K, Last@K]]; i = 1; While[MemberQ[T, i], i++]; AppendTo[K, i]]; Print[K] (* Samuel Harkness, Mar 12 2023 *)

Prog

(PARI) lista(nn) = my(va=vector(nn)); va[1] = 1; for (n=2, nn, my(k=#select(x->(x==va[n-1]), va)); my(vb=Vec(va, k), m); for(j=1, vecmax(vb)+1, if (! #select(x->(x==j), vb), m=j; break)); va[n] = m; ); va; \\ Michel Marcus, Jan 13 2023

Crossrefs

Cf. A358921.

Sequence in context: A358550 A126071 A338292 * A217865 A185166 A276555

Adjacent sequences: A359725 A359726 A359727 * A359729 A359730 A359731

Keyword

nonn

Author

Neal Gersh Tolunsky, Jan 11 2023

Status

approved