bigrat(3)        Perl Programmers Reference Guide       bigrat(3)



NAME
       bigrat - Transparent BigNumber/BigRational support for
       Perl

SYNOPSIS
         use bigrat;

         $x = 2 + 4.5,"\n";                    # BigFloat 6.5
         print 1/3 + 1/4,"\n";                 # produces 7/12

DESCRIPTION
       All operators (inlcuding basic math operations) are over-
       loaded. Integer and floating-point constants are created
       as proper BigInts or BigFloats, respectively.

       Other than bignum, this module upgrades to Math::BigRat,
       meaning that instead of 2.5 you will get 2+1/2 as output.

       Modules Used

       "bigrat" is just a thin wrapper around various modules of
       the Math::BigInt family. Think of it as the head of the
       family, who runs the shop, and orders the others to do the
       work.

       The following modules are currently used by bignum:

               Math::BigInt::Lite      (for speed, and only if it is loadable)
               Math::BigInt
               Math::BigFloat
               Math::BigRat

       Math Library

       Math with the numbers is done (by default) by a module
       called Math::BigInt::Calc. This is equivalent to saying:

               use bigrat lib => 'Calc';

       You can change this by using:

               use bigrat lib => 'BitVect';

       The following would first try to find Math::BigInt::Foo,
       then Math::BigInt::Bar, and when this also fails, revert
       to Math::BigInt::Calc:

               use bigrat lib => 'Foo,Math::BigInt::Bar';

       Please see respective module documentation for further
       details.

       Sign

       The sign is either '+', '-', 'NaN', '+inf' or '-inf'.

       A sign of 'NaN' is used to represent the result when input
       arguments are not numbers or as a result of 0/0. '+inf'
       and '-inf' represent plus respectively minus infinity. You
       will get '+inf' when dividing a positive number by 0, and
       '-inf' when dividing any negative number by 0.


       Methods

       Since all numbers are not objects, you can use all func-
       tions that are part of the BigInt or BigFloat API. It is
       wise to use only the bxxx() notation, and not the fxxx()
       notation, though. This makes you independed on the fact
       that the underlying object might morph into a different
       class than BigFloat.

       Cavaet

       But a warning is in order. When using the following to
       make a copy of a number, only a shallow copy will be made.

               $x = 9; $y = $x;
               $x = $y = 7;

       If you want to make a real copy, use the following:

               $y = $x->copy();

       Using the copy or the original with overloaded math is
       okay, e.g. the following work:

               $x = 9; $y = $x;
               print $x + 1, " ", $y,"\n";     # prints 10 9

       but calling any method that modifies the number directly
       will result in both the original and the copy beeing
       destroyed:

               $x = 9; $y = $x;
               print $x->badd(1), " ", $y,"\n";        # prints 10 10

               $x = 9; $y = $x;
               print $x->binc(1), " ", $y,"\n";        # prints 10 10

               $x = 9; $y = $x;
               print $x->bmul(2), " ", $y,"\n";        # prints 18 18

       Using methods that do not modify, but testthe contents
       works:

               $x = 9; $y = $x;
               $z = 9 if $x->is_zero();                # works fine

       See the documentation about the copy constructor and "="
       in overload, as well as the documentation in BigInt for
       further details.

       Options

       bignum recognizes some options that can be passed while
       loading it via use.  The options can (currently) be either
       a single letter form, or the long form.  The following
       options exist:

       a or accuracy
         This sets the accuracy for all math operations. The
         argument must be greater than or equal to zero. See
         Math::BigInt's bround() function for details.

                 perl -Mbigrat=a,50 -le 'print sqrt(20)'

       p or precision
         This sets the precision for all math operations. The
         argument can be any integer. Negative values mean a
         fixed number of digits after the dot, while a positive
         value rounds to this digit left from the dot. 0 or 1
         mean round to integer. See Math::BigInt's bfround()
         function for details.

                 perl -Mbigrat=p,-50 -le 'print sqrt(20)'

       t or trace
         This enables a trace mode and is primarily for debugging
         bignum or Math::BigInt/Math::BigFloat.

       l or lib
         Load a different math lib, see "MATH LIBRARY".

                 perl -Mbigrat=l,GMP -e 'print 2 ** 512'

         Currently there is no way to specify more than one
         library on the command line. This will be hopefully
         fixed soon ;)

       v or version
         This prints out the name and version of all modules used
         and then exits.

                 perl -Mbigrat=v

EXAMPLES
               perl -Mbigrat -le 'print sqrt(33)'
               perl -Mbigrat -le 'print 2*255'
               perl -Mbigrat -le 'print 4.5+2*255'
               perl -Mbigrat -le 'print 3/7 + 5/7 + 8/3'
               perl -Mbigrat -le 'print 12->is_odd()';

LICENSE
       This program is free software; you may redistribute it
       and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO
       Especially bignum.

       Math::BigFloat, Math::BigInt, Math::BigRat and Math::Big
       as well as Math::BigInt::BitVect, Math::BigInt::Pari and
       Math::BigInt::GMP.

AUTHORS
       (C) by Tels  in early 2002 - 2005.



perl v5.8.8                 2001-09-21                  bigrat(3)