[sci.math] Stirling numbers of the second kind

sarnath@sybil.cs.buffalo.edu (Ramnath Sarnath) (01/26/91)

I am looking for good approximations for stirling numbers of the second
kind. 

i.e, stirling number {n,k} = number of ways to partition n elements into
k non-empty subsets.

These approximations should get better as n gets bigger. Asymptotic
approximations are also welcome. 

I have some literature on this, but looks like I need to do a lot of
spadework before I can use it. I'd appreciate any reference
where I could directly  obtain a closed formula


thanx,

sarnath