Bigger Numbers
The standard Math::BigInt, Math::BigRat, and Math::BigFloat modules, along with the bignum , bigint , and bigrat pragmas, provide variable-precision arithmetic and overloaded operators, although they're currently pretty slow. At the cost of some space and considerable speed, they avoid the normal pitfalls associated with limited-precision representations.
use 5.010; use bigint; # easy interface to Math::BigInt $x = 123456789123456789; say $x * $x; +15241578780673678515622620750190521
Or with rationals:
use 5.010;
use bigrat;
$x = 3/22;
$y = 4/6;
say "x/y is ", $x/$y;
say "x*y is ", $x*$y;
x/y is 9/44
x*y is 1/11
Several modules let you calculate with unlimited or fixed precision (bound only by memory and CPU time). There are also some non-standard modules that provide faster implementations via external C libraries.
Here is a short, but incomplete summary:
Math::String treat string sequences like numbers
Math::FixedPrecision calculate with a fixed precision
Math::Currency for currency calculations
Bit::Vector manipulate bit vectors fast (uses C)
Math::BigIntFast Bit::Vector wrapper for big numbers
Math::Pari provides access to the Pari C library
Math::Cephes uses the external Cephes C library (no
big numbers)
Math::Cephes::Fraction fractions via the Cephes library
Math::GMP another one using an external C library
Math::GMPz an alternative interface to libgmp's big ints
Math::GMPq an interface to libgmp's fraction numbers
Math::GMPf an interface to libgmp's floating point numbers
Choose wisely.
Please login to continue.