Well, it depends. Do you have 64-bit integers? Or 32-bit? If the latter, Perl will silently upgrade to floats when the number gets too large, and still be able to do lossless arithmetic up to about 53 bits (although I have to confess, I don't know whether Perl does the upgrade when 'use integer' is in effect).

I guess it shouldn't be too hard to modify your program and keep track of the largest number used during the calculation, and see how many bits this needs.

In reply to Re: dealing with large numbers by JavaFan
in thread dealing with large numbers by waspoe1

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