Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!feeder.erje.net!eu.feeder.erje.net!newsfeed.xs4all.nl!newsfeed3a.news.xs4all.nl!xs4all!newsgate.cistron.nl!newsgate.news.xs4all.nl!post.news.xs4all.nl!not-for-mail Return-Path: X-Original-To: python-list@python.org Delivered-To: python-list@mail.python.org X-Spam-Status: OK 0.002 X-Spam-Evidence: '*H*': 1.00; '*S*': 0.00; 'that?': 0.05; 'float': 0.07; 'received:80.91': 0.09; 'received:80.91.229': 0.09; 'received:gmane.org': 0.09; 'received:list': 0.09; 'python': 0.11; '2.7': 0.14; 'compute': 0.16; 'feasible': 0.16; 'received:80.91.229.3': 0.16; 'received:dip0.t-ipconnect.de': 0.16; 'received:plane.gmane.org': 0.16; 'received:t-ipconnect.de': 0.16; 'wrote:': 0.18; '>>>': 0.22; 'header:User-Agent:1': 0.23; 'integer': 0.24; 'fairly': 0.24; 'header:X-Complaints-To:1': 0.27; 'idea': 0.28; '"",': 0.31; 'file': 0.32; '(most': 0.33; 'maybe': 0.34; 'convert': 0.35; 'but': 0.35; 'there': 0.35; 'version': 0.36; 'too': 0.37; 'handle': 0.38; 'to:addr:python-list': 0.38; 'recent': 0.39; 'to:addr:python.org': 0.39; 'received:org': 0.40; 'how': 0.40; 'our': 0.64; 'subject:base': 0.84 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ To: python-list@python.org From: Peter Otten <__peter__@web.de> Subject: Re: Log base 2 of large integers Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 15:58:02 +0200 Organization: None References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: p57bdaf05.dip0.t-ipconnect.de User-Agent: KNode/4.13.2 X-BeenThere: python-list@python.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.15 Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion list for the Python programming language List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Newsgroups: comp.lang.python Message-ID: Lines: 21 NNTP-Posting-Host: 2001:888:2000:d::a6 X-Trace: 1407938306 news.xs4all.nl 2887 [2001:888:2000:d::a6]:37024 X-Complaints-To: abuse@xs4all.nl Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:76200 Mok-Kong Shen wrote: > I like to compute log base 2 of a fairly large integer n but > with math.log(n,2) I got: > > OverflowError: long int too large to convert to float. > > Is there any feasible work-around for that? What version of Python are you using? Python 2.7 can handle "fairly large" integers: >>> float(x) Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 1, in OverflowError: long int too large to convert to float >>> math.log(x, 2) 50462500.07504181 Or maybe our idea of "fairly large" differ; so how large is fairly large?