bignum - Transparent BigNumber support for Perl |
bignum - Transparent BigNumber support for Perl
use bignum;
$x = 2 + 4.5,"\n"; # BigFloat 6.5 print 2 ** 512 * 0.1; # really is what you think it is
All operators (including basic math operations) are overloaded. Integer and floating-point constants are created as proper BigInts or BigFloats, respectively.
bignum recognizes some options that can be passed while loading it via use. The options can (currently) be either a single letter form, or the long form. The following options exist:
bround()
function for details.
perl -Mbignum=a,50 -le 'print sqrt(20)'
bfround()
function for details.
perl -Mbignum=p,-50 -le 'print sqrt(20)'
perl -Mbignum=l,GMP -e 'print 2 ** 512'
Currently there is no way to specify more than one library on the command line. This will be hopefully fixed soon ;)
perl -Mbignum=v -e ''
Math with the numbers is done (by default) by a module called Math::BigInt::Calc. This is equivalent to saying:
use bignum lib => 'Calc';
You can change this by using:
use bignum lib => 'BitVect';
The following would first try to find Math::BigInt::Foo, then Math::BigInt::Bar, and when this also fails, revert to Math::BigInt::Calc:
use bignum lib => 'Foo,Math::BigInt::Bar';
Please see respective module documentation for further details.
The numbers are stored as objects, and their internals might change at anytime, especially between math operations. The objects also might belong to different classes, like Math::BigInt, or Math::BigFLoat. Mixing them together, even with normal scalars is not extraordinary, but normal and expected.
You should not depend on the internal format, all accesses must go through accessor methods. E.g. looking at $x->{sign} is not a bright idea since there is no guaranty that the object in question has such a hashkey, nor is a hash underneath at all.
The sign is either '+', '-', 'NaN', '+inf' or '-inf' and stored seperately.
You can access it with the sign()
method.
A sign of 'NaN' is used to represent the result when input arguments are not numbers or as a result of 0/0. '+inf' and '-inf' represent plus respectively minus infinity. You will get '+inf' when dividing a positive number by 0, and '-inf' when dividing any negative number by 0.
Since all numbers are now objects, you can use all functions that are part of
the BigInt or BigFloat API. It is wise to use only the bxxx()
notation, and not
the fxxx()
notation, though. This makes it possible that the underlying object
might morph into a different class than BigFloat.
bignum
is just a thin wrapper around various modules of the Math::BigInt
family. Think of it as the head of the family, who runs the shop, and orders
the others to do the work.
The following modules are currently used by bignum:
Math::BigInt::Lite (for speed, and only if it is loadable) Math::BigInt Math::BigFloat
Some cool command line examples to impress the Python crowd ;)
perl -Mbignum -le 'print sqrt(33)' perl -Mbignum -le 'print 2*255' perl -Mbignum -le 'print 4.5+2*255' perl -Mbignum -le 'print 3/7 + 5/7 + 8/3' perl -Mbignum -le 'print 123->is_odd()' perl -Mbignum -le 'print log(2)' perl -Mbignum -le 'print 2 ** 0.5' perl -Mbignum=a,65 -le 'print 2 ** 0.2'
This program is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
Especially the bigrat manpage as in perl -Mbigrat -le 'print 1/3+1/4'
.
the Math::BigFloat manpage, the Math::BigInt manpage, the Math::BigRat manpage and the Math::Big manpage as well as the Math::BigInt::BitVect manpage, the Math::BigInt::Pari manpage and the Math::BigInt::GMP manpage.
(C) by Tels http://bloodgate.com/ in early 2002.
bignum - Transparent BigNumber support for Perl |