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bigrat - Transparent BigNumber/BigRational support for Perl
use bigrat;
$x = 2 + 4.5,"\n"; # BigFloat 6.5 print 1/3 + 1/4,"\n"; # produces 7/12
All operators (inlcuding basic math operations) are overloaded. Integer and floating-point constants are created as proper BigInts or BigFloats, respectively.
Other than the bignum manpage, this module upgrades to Math::BigRat, meaning that instead of 2.5 you will get 2+1/2 as output.
bigrat 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
Math::BigRat
Math with the numbers is done (by default) by a module called Math::BigInt::Calc. This is equivalent to saying:
use bigrat lib => 'Calc';
You can change this by using:
use bigrat 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 bigrat lib => 'Foo,Math::BigInt::Bar';
Please see respective module documentation for further details.
The sign is either '+', '-', 'NaN', '+inf' or '-inf'.
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 not 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 you independed on the fact that the
underlying object might morph into a different class than BigFloat.
But a warning is in order. When using the following to make a copy of a number, only a shallow copy will be made.
$x = 9; $y = $x;
$x = $y = 7;
If you want to make a real copy, use the following:
$y = $x->copy();
Using the copy or the original with overloaded math is okay, e.g. the following work:
$x = 9; $y = $x;
print $x + 1, " ", $y,"\n"; # prints 10 9
but calling any method that modifies the number directly will result in both the original and the copy beeing destroyed:
$x = 9; $y = $x;
print $x->badd(1), " ", $y,"\n"; # prints 10 10
$x = 9; $y = $x;
print $x->binc(1), " ", $y,"\n"; # prints 10 10
$x = 9; $y = $x;
print $x->bmul(2), " ", $y,"\n"; # prints 18 18
Using methods that do not modify, but testthe contents works:
$x = 9; $y = $x;
$z = 9 if $x->is_zero(); # works fine
See the documentation about the copy constructor and = in overload, as
well as the documentation in BigInt for further details.
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:
This sets the accuracy for all math operations. The argument must be greater
than or equal to zero. See Math::BigInt's bround() function for details.
perl -Mbigrat=a,50 -le 'print sqrt(20)'
This sets the precision for all math operations. The argument can be any
integer. Negative values mean a fixed number of digits after the dot, while
a positive value rounds to this digit left from the dot. 0 or 1 mean round to
integer. See Math::BigInt's bfround() function for details.
perl -Mbigrat=p,-50 -le 'print sqrt(20)'
This enables a trace mode and is primarily for debugging bignum or Math::BigInt/Math::BigFloat.
Load a different math lib, see MATH LIBRARY.
perl -Mbigrat=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 ;)
This prints out the name and version of all modules used and then exits.
perl -Mbigrat=v
perl -Mbigrat -le 'print sqrt(33)'
perl -Mbigrat -le 'print 2*255'
perl -Mbigrat -le 'print 4.5+2*255'
perl -Mbigrat -le 'print 3/7 + 5/7 + 8/3'
perl -Mbigrat -le 'print 12->is_odd()';
This program is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
Especially the bignum manpage.
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 - 2005.