Ideas for storing and operating on huge numbers in C++

Question

I am supposed to build a program for storing and handling huge integers. I know that there are many answers out there but I need ideas that I can implement easily, bearing in mind that I can use any of the basic concepts of C/C++.

How should I go about it?

This is the first time I am asking a question here so please correct me if I am wrong about anything.

Edit: Actually what I wanted to know was how should I go about storing a huge integer... Obviously an array is what comes to mind at first glance but are there any other methods out there at the basic level?

EDIT2: I came across a very nice solution to this problem a while ago, but was just a bit lazy to put it on here. We can use the concept of number systems to deal with huge numbers. We can declare an array that holds the co-efficient of powers of 256, thus obtaining a base 256 system. We can then use fundamental concepts like those of the various number systems to obtain our required results.

"I have to use all the basic concepts of C/C++." - All? Sounds unrealistic... — , Aug 04 '13 at 14:51
The first thing to decide is whether you're using C or C++. They are very different languages. — Mike Seymour, Aug 04 '13 at 14:52
I have to use some of the basic concepts. If the choice of language is important, let's assume I am using C++. — iluvthee07, Aug 04 '13 at 14:55
you need to use big numbers or implement a library that is designed to handle big numbers ? — user2485710, Aug 04 '13 at 15:11
@user2485710 : I need to design a code that can be used to handle huge integers. Similar to designing a bigInt program but using fundamentals only. — iluvthee07, Aug 04 '13 at 15:18

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:23

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Matt McCutchen has a Big Integer Library

If you want to do this yourself his code would be a great starting point. As you can overload arithmetic operators in C++ it is not too difficult to make a new BigInteger class and make this handle any number of bits per integer.

There is also a stack overflow answer to this question: here

edited May 23 '17 at 12:23

Community

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answered Aug 04 '13 at 14:58

David Elliman

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 04 '13 at 15:44

I consider this as a question about theory, as such I suggest to browse the internet using the right keywords for documents/articles or to take a sneak peek at libraries that are implementing this feature and are well tested, this projects also tend to offer a mailing list or a forum where developers can communicate, it can be a good place to start writing about this stuff.

Ideas for storing and operating on huge numbers in C++

2 Answers2