integer

integer(3)	       Perl Programmers Reference Guide		   integer(3)



NAME
       integer - Perl pragma to use integer arithmetic instead of floating
       point

SYNOPSIS
	   use integer;
	   $x = 10/3;
	   # $x is now 3, not 3.33333333333333333

DESCRIPTION
       This tells the compiler to use integer operations from here to the end
       of the enclosing BLOCK.	On many machines, this doesn’t matter a great
       deal for most computations, but on those without floating point hard-
       ware, it can make a big difference in performance.

       Note that this only affects how most of the arithmetic and relational
       operators handle their operands and results, and not how all numbers
       everywhere are treated.	Specifically, "use integer;" has the effect
       that before computing the results of the arithmetic operators (+, -,
       *, /, %, +=, -=, *=, /=, %=, and unary minus), the comparison opera-
       tors (<, <=, >, >=, ==, !=, <=>), and the bitwise operators (│, &, ^,
       <<, >>, │=, &=, ^=, <<=, >>=), the operands have their fractional por-
       tions truncated (or floored), and the result will have its fractional
       portion truncated as well.  In addition, the range of operands and
       results is restricted to that of familiar two’s complement integers,
       i.e., -(2**31) .. (2**31-1) on 32-bit architectures, and -(2**63) ..
       (2**63-1) on 64-bit architectures.  For example, this code

	   use integer;
	   $x = 5.8;
	   $y = 2.5;
	   $z = 2.7;
	   $a = 2**31 - 1;  # Largest positive integer on 32-bit machines
	   $, = ", ";
	   print $x, -$x, $x + $y, $x - $y, $x / $y, $x * $y, $y == $z, $a, $a + 1;

       will print:  5.8, -5, 7, 3, 2, 10, 1, 2147483647, -2147483648

       Note that $x is still printed as having its true non-integer value of
       5.8 since it wasn’t operated on.	 And note too the wrap-around from
       the largest positive integer to the largest negative one.   Also,
       arguments passed to functions and the values returned by them are not
       affected by "use integer;".  E.g.,

	   srand(1.5);
	   $, = ", ";
	   print sin(.5), cos(.5), atan2(1,2), sqrt(2), rand(10);

       will give the same result with or without "use integer;"	 The power
       operator "**" is also not affected, so that 2 ** .5 is always the
       square root of 2.  Now, it so happens that the pre- and post- incre-
       ment and decrement operators, ++ and --, are not affected by "use
       integer;" either.  Some may rightly consider this to be a bug -- but
       at least it’s a long-standing one.

       Finally, "use integer;" also has an additional affect on the bitwise
       operators.  Normally, the operands and results are treated as unsigned
       integers, but with "use integer;" the operands and results are signed.
       This means, among other things, that ~0 is -1, and -2 & -5 is -6.

       Internally, native integer arithmetic (as provided by your C compiler)
       is used.	 This means that Perl’s own semantics for arithmetic
       operations may not be preserved.	 One common source of trouble is the
       modulus of negative numbers, which Perl does one way, but your hard-
       ware may do another.

	   % perl -le ’print (4 % -3)’
	   -2
	   % perl -Minteger -le ’print (4 % -3)’
	   1

       See "Pragmatic Modules" in perlmodlib, "Integer Arithmetic" in perlop



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