Encyclopedia > Bignum

  Article Content

Bignum

A bignum system in a computer or program allows internal representation of arbitrarily large integers or arbitrarily precise rational numbers. Numbers are typically stored as (ratios of) digit lists which can grow using dynamically allocated memory.

First implemented in MacLISP[?], bignum facilities are available in most modern LISPs and in many other languages (Java, Perl, Ruby, Python, Squeak). The VAX/VMS operating system offered bignum facilities as a collection of string functions[?]. The GNU Multi-Precision Library[?] is a free C library that offers bignum features. All computer algebra systems contain bignum facilities.

Bignum systems often employ fast multiplication algorithms.

See also: large numbers.



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
1904

... Ivanovich Mendeleev, Russian chemist and inventor of the Periodic table May 19 - Auguste Molinier, French historian July 14 - Anton Chekhov, Russian playwright ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 33.8 ms