1Math::GMP(3)          User Contributed Perl Documentation         Math::GMP(3)
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NAME

6       Math::GMP - High speed arbitrary size integer math
7

SYNOPSIS

9         use Math::GMP;
10         my $n = new Math::GMP 2;
11
12         $n = $n ** (256*1024);
13         $n = $n - 1;
14         print "n is now $n\n";
15

DESCRIPTION

17       Math::GMP was designed to be a drop-in replacement both for Math::Big‐
18       Int and for regular integer arithmetic.  Unlike BigInt, though,
19       Math::GMP uses the GNU gmp library for all of its calculations, as
20       opposed to straight Perl functions.  This can result in speed improve‐
21       ments.
22
23       The downside is that this module requires a C compiler to install -- a
24       small tradeoff in most cases. Also, this module is not 100% compatible
25       to Math::BigInt.
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27       A Math::GMP object can be used just as a normal numeric scalar would be
28       -- the module overloads most of the normal arithmetic operators to pro‐
29       vide as seamless an interface as possible. However, if you need a per‐
30       fect interface, you can do the following:
31
32         use Math::GMP qw(:constant);
33
34         $n = 2 ** (256 * 1024);
35         print "n is $n\n";
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37       This would fail without the ':constant' since Perl would use normal
38       doubles to compute the 250,000 bit number, and thereby overflow it into
39       meaninglessness (smaller exponents yield less accurate data due to
40       floating point rounding).
41

METHODS

43       Although the non-overload interface is not complete, the following
44       functions do exist:
45
46       new
47
48               $x = Math::GMP->new(123);
49
50       Creates a new Math::GMP object from the passed string or scalar.
51
52               $x = Math::GMP->new('abcd', 36);
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54       Creates a new Math::GMP object from the first parameter which should be
55       represented in the base specified by the second parameter.
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57       bfac
58
59               $x = Math::GMP->new(5);
60               $x->bfac();                     # 1*2*3*4*5 = 120
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62       Calculates the factorial of $x and modifies $x to contain the result.
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64       band
65
66               $x = Math::GMP->new(6);
67               $x->band(3);                    # 0b110 & 0b11 = 1
68
69       Calculates the bit-wise AND of it's two arguments and modifies the
70       first argument.
71
72       bxor
73
74               $x = Math::GMP->new(6);
75               $x->bxor(3);                    # 0b110 & 0b11 = 0b101
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77       Calculates the bit-wise XOR of it's two arguments and modifies the
78       first argument.
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80       bior
81
82               $x = Math::GMP->new(6);
83               $x->bior(3);                    # 0b110 & 0b11 = 0b111
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85       Calculates the bit-wise OR of it's two arguments and modifies the first
86       argument.
87
88       bgcd
89
90               $x = Math::GMP->new(6);
91               $x->bgcd(4);                    # 6 / 2 = 2, 4 / 2 = 2 => 2
92
93       Calculates the Greatest Common Divisior of it's two arguments and
94       returnes the result.
95
96       legendre
97
98       jacobi
99
100       fibonacci
101
102               $x = Math::GMP->fibonacci(16);
103
104       Calculates the n'th number in the Fibonacci sequence.
105

BUGS

107       As of version 1.0, Math::GMP is mostly compatible with the old
108       Math::BigInt version. It is not a full replacement for the rewritten
109       Math::BigInt versions, though. See the SEE ALSO section on how to
110       achieve to use Math::GMP and retain full compatibility to Math::BigInt.
111
112       There are some slight incompatibilities, such as output of positive
113       numbers not being prefixed by a '+' sign.  This is intentional.
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115       There are also some things missing, and not everything might work as
116       expected.
117

SEE ALSO

119       Math::BigInt has a new interface to use a different library than the
120       default pure Perl implementation. You can use, for instance, Math::GMP
121       with it:
122
123               use Math::BigInt lib => 'GMP';
124
125       If Math::GMP is not installed, it will fall back to it's own Perl
126       implementation.
127
128       See Math::BigInt and Math::BigInt::GMP or Math::BigInt::Pari or
129       Math::BigInt::BitVect.
130

AUTHOR

132       Chip Turner <chip@redhat.com>, based on the old Math::BigInt by Mark
133       Biggar and Ilya Zakharevich.  Further extensive work provided by Tels
134       <tels@bloodgate.com>.
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138perl v5.8.8                       2004-09-28                      Math::GMP(3)