Arrange consecutive digits to form two numbers whose product is as large as possible.

splitdigits.py

# Problem: Arrange the consecutive digits {x,x+1,..,y} to form two numbers A and B
# so that the product A*B is as large as possible.
# 
# The generator `splitdigits` returns all candidate triples (P, A, B) where P = A * B.

def splitdigits(x=1, y=9, base=10):
    if x == y:
        yield (0, y, 0)
    else:
        for P, A, B in splitdigits(x+1, y, base):
            yield (base*P + A*x, A, base*B + x)
            yield (base*P + B*x, base*A + x, B)

print max(splitdigits())  # Expected output is (843973902, 9642, 87531)