I suspect this will only mask this issue for the OP. At best, this give the OP a factor of two improvement before he hits the ceiling, and then it transforms an obvious error to a silent one. For example, the code:

printf "%020u\n%020u\n%020u\n", 9223372036854775808,20000000000000000000,99999999999999999999

outputs under 64-bit

09223372036854775808
18446744073709551615
18446744073709551615
[download]

and under 32-bit

00000000004294967295
00000000004294967295
00000000004294967295
[download]

The swapping to %020.0f puts you at the whims of round-off, with 32-bit yielding

09223372036854775800
20000000000000000000
100000000000000000000
[download]

and 64-bit yielding

09223372036854775808
20000000000000000000
100000000000000000000
[download]

That round-off might well be acceptable depending on the specific numbers involved and required accuracy; if not the OP will likely have to resort to Math::BigInt or equivalent.

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