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### Prime counting function

The prime counting function is the function giving the number of primes less than or equal to a given number (Shanks 1993, p. 15). For example, there are no primes , so . There is a single prime (2) , so . There are two primes (2 and 3) , so . And so on.The notation for the prime counting function is slightly unfortunate because it has nothing whatsoever to do with the constant . This notation was introduced by number theorist Edmund Landau in 1909 and has now become standard. In the words of Derbyshire (2004, p. 38), "I am sorry about this; it is not my fault. You'll just have to put up with it."Letting denote the th prime, is a right inverse of since(1)for all positive integers. Also,(2)iff is a prime number.The first few values of for , 2, ... are 0, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, ... (OEIS A000720). The Wolfram Language command giving the prime counting function for a number is PrimePi[x], which works up to a maximum value of .The notation..

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