Integer exponentiation without modulo?

[Décio Luiz Gazzoni Filho]

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On Mar 17, 2007, at 11:13 AM, FX Coudert wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Among the various integer exponentiation functions, I couldn't find
> one that computers a**b, where a and b are both mpz_t. mpz_powm
> performs a modulo operation, and mpz_pow_ui requires that I extract
> an unsigned long int from b, which is not possible if b is large.

If b is larger than an unsigned long int (which is at least 32 bits  
in size (I believe 64 bits in a 64-bit system), hence it can store an  
integer as large as 4294967295), that means you're computing a number  
larger than b^4294967295, which even for the smallest choice of base  
b = 2 is already 4 Gbits in size -- assuming optimal storage. Are you  
really really sure you want to perform arithmetic with numbers this  
large? Maybe you should reevaluate whatever it is that you're doing.

Décio

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