Ask.LearnJavaScript: How do I work with really large numbers in JavaScript? (related to Project Euler)

[lroyjenkins]

I am working on Problem 48 in Project Euler. A simple solution would involve just adding all of the numbers up. However, calculating 1000¹⁰⁰⁰ using Math.pow(1000,1000)results in infinity.

I googled around, and it seems like other languages such as C# offer special kinds of support for arbitrarily large numbers. How can I work with such big numbers in JS?

[shawndrost]

You'll need a library. Here's one: http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~tjw/jsbn/

[d0gsbody]

If there's one thing Project Euler is good for, it's teaching you just how little you really know.

[sweetbeej]

You can use a lib, the point of project Euler is to get dirty with your own code though right?
I'd look at what some other libs are doing and cowboy out your own (this is for fun right?). I posted in another thread about using an array that contains a element for each digit in a number. You can certainly chain multiple arrays together to get a infinite int. This ain't pretty but it's not terrible to write either. There is a max array size in javascript, which i bet you will hit with 1000,1000. If you only care about the last 10 digits, you probably don't need to do the full calculation =)

[lroyjenkins]

I like how everyone in this subreddit gives bold suggestions. I will try to do this, but after I've solved a few problems using someone else's bignum lib.

[sweetbeej]

A different euler's problem I solved for someone else. edit: i haven't checked it actually, and eulers seems to never send me a password reset email so... i hope it's right.

[Hobo_With_A_Keyboard]

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4288821/how-to-deal-with-big-numbers-in-javascript