Bitwise operations on a scalar

badger has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I am attempting to handle bit-wise opperations on 64 bit values, and I am seeing unexplained behavior (ie, it's not working...) I theorized that my problem might be that I'm overflowing, so I thought I would check the range of PERL variables, but, the whole issue of variable types/ranges/sizes is overlooked in all of my reference books... Anyone out there know the range of a scalar in PERL?

20040407 Edit by BazB: Changed title from 'Scaler range'

Comment on Bitwise operations on a scalar

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Re: Scalar range by Zaxo (Archbishop) on Apr 06, 2004 at 22:16 UTC
It depends on how your perl is compiled. Perl usually uses 32-bit integers on common platforms, but 64-bit is available on most. See '`perldoc Config`' from the command line, and look for the `ivsize` key. Update: Normally, bitwise operators force numeric values into the unsigned integer type, UV. They can be done on a string, as well, with vec to help. Be careful about bit and byte order, they can be tricky and unportable. After Compline, Zaxo	[reply]
Re: Bitwise operations on a scalar by borisz (Canon) on Apr 06, 2004 at 22:20 UTC
You can look at your limits with `perl -V`. To use bigger values use Math::BigInt or Bit::Vector. Boris	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Bitwise operations on a scalar by Happy-the-monk (Canon) on Apr 06, 2004 at 22:21 UTC
badger asks: Anyone out there know the range of a scalar in PERL? `perldoc perldata` says: A scalar is a single string (of any size, limited only by the available memory), number, or a reference to something (which will be discussed in `perlref`). I know, this is not about bitwise operation, but about what memory allows to store in a scalar. Cheers, Sören	[reply]