This is an old revision of this page, as edited by The Anome (talk | contribs) at 12:29, 24 February 2003 (See also: large numbers.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 12:29, 24 February 2003 by The Anome (talk | contribs) (See also: large numbers.)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)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.