Class

Bignum objects hold integers outside the range of Fixnum. Bignum objects are created automatically when integer calculations would otherwise overflow a Fixnum. When a calculation involving Bignum objects returns a result that will fit in a Fixnum, the result is automatically converted.

For the purposes of the bitwise operations and [], a Bignum is treated as if it were an infinite-length bitstring with 2’s complement representation.

While Fixnum values are immediate, Bignum objects are not—assignment and parameter passing work with references to objects, not the objects themselves.

When mathn is required Bignum’s division is enhanced to return more precise values from mathematical expressions.

(2**72) / ((2**70) * 3)  # => 4/3
Constants

The version of loaded GMP.

Instance Methods

Returns big modulo other. See Numeric.divmod for more information.

Performs bitwise and between big and numeric.

Multiplies big and other, returning the result.

Raises big to the exponent power (which may be an integer, float, or anything that will coerce to a number). The result may be a Fixnum, Bignum, or Float

123456789 ** 2      #=> 15241578750190521
123456789 ** 1.2    #=> 5126464716.09932
123456789 ** -2     #=> (1/15241578750190521)

Adds big and other, returning the result.

Subtracts other from big, returning the result.

Unary minus (returns an integer whose value is 0-big)

Performs division: the class of the resulting object depends on the class of numeric and on the magnitude of the result.

Returns true if the value of big is less than that of real.

Shifts big left numeric positions (right if numeric is negative).

Returns true if the value of big is less than or equal to that of real.

Comparison—Returns -1, 0, or +1 depending on whether big is less than, equal to, or greater than numeric. This is the basis for the tests in Comparable.

nil is returned if the two values are incomparable.

Returns true only if obj has the same value as big. Contrast this with Bignum#eql?, which requires obj to be a Bignum.

68719476736 == 68719476736.0   #=> true
An alias for ==

Returns true if the value of big is greater than that of real.

Returns true if the value of big is greater than or equal to that of real.

Shifts big right numeric positions (left if numeric is negative).

Bit Reference—Returns the nth bit in the (assumed) binary representation of big, where big[0] is the least significant bit.

a = 9**15
50.downto(0) do |n|
  print a[n]
end

produces:

000101110110100000111000011110010100111100010111001

Performs bitwise +exclusive or+ between big and numeric.

Returns the absolute value of big.

-1234567890987654321.abs   #=> 1234567890987654321

Returns the number of bits of the value of int.

“the number of bits” means that the bit position of the highest bit which is different to the sign bit. (The bit position of the bit 2**n is n+1.) If there is no such bit (zero or minus one), zero is returned.

I.e. This method returns ceil(log2(int < 0 ? -int : int+1)).

(-2**10000-1).bit_length  #=> 10001
(-2**10000).bit_length    #=> 10000
(-2**10000+1).bit_length  #=> 10000

(-2**1000-1).bit_length   #=> 1001
(-2**1000).bit_length     #=> 1000
(-2**1000+1).bit_length   #=> 1000

(2**1000-1).bit_length    #=> 1000
(2**1000).bit_length      #=> 1001
(2**1000+1).bit_length    #=> 1001

(2**10000-1).bit_length   #=> 10000
(2**10000).bit_length     #=> 10001
(2**10000+1).bit_length   #=> 10001

This method can be used to detect overflow in Array#pack as follows.

if n.bit_length < 32
  [n].pack("l") # no overflow
else
  raise "overflow"
end

Returns an array with both a numeric and a big represented as Bignum objects.

This is achieved by converting numeric to a Bignum.

A TypeError is raised if the numeric is not a Fixnum or Bignum type.

(0x3FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF+1).coerce(42)   #=> [42, 4611686018427387904]

Performs integer division: returns integer value.

See Numeric#divmod.

Returns true only if obj is a Bignum with the same value as big. Contrast this with Bignum#==, which performs type conversions.

68719476736.eql?(68719476736.0)   #=> false

Returns true if big is an even number.

Returns the floating point result of dividing big by numeric.

-1234567890987654321.fdiv(13731)      #=> -89910996357705.5
-1234567890987654321.fdiv(13731.24)   #=> -89909424858035.7

Compute a hash based on the value of big.

See also Object#hash.

Returns true if big is an odd number.

Returns the remainder after dividing big by numeric.

-1234567890987654321.remainder(13731)      #=> -6966
-1234567890987654321.remainder(13731.24)   #=> -9906.22531493148

Returns the number of bytes in the machine representation of big.

(256**10 - 1).size   #=> 12
(256**20 - 1).size   #=> 20
(256**40 - 1).size   #=> 40

Converts big to a Float. If big doesn’t fit in a Float, the result is infinity.

Returns a string containing the representation of big radix base (2 through 36).

12345654321.to_s         #=> "12345654321"
12345654321.to_s(2)      #=> "1011011111110110111011110000110001"
12345654321.to_s(8)      #=> "133766736061"
12345654321.to_s(16)     #=> "2dfdbbc31"
78546939656932.to_s(36)  #=> "rubyrules"

Performs bitwise or between big and numeric.

Inverts the bits in big. As Bignums are conceptually infinite length, the result acts as if it had an infinite number of one bits to the left. In hex representations, this is displayed as two periods to the left of the digits.

sprintf("%X", ~0x1122334455)    #=> "..FEEDDCCBBAA"