Todd Steury wrote: > Greetings Python'ers: > > I'm just an amature who occasionally uses Python for complex mathematical > models. The current model I'm working with occasionally generates really > large numbers that are either "float" or "complex" types. These numbers are > so large that I either get an overflow error, or some funky code like #INF > or 1.#INDj. However I really need these numbers to be calculated (although > precision isn't key). Is there a way to get python to increase the size > limit of float and complex numbers? I should mention that I'm using a lot of > pre-made modules and functions like math.exp() and scipy.special.erf() that > don't seem to be able to use available types like "Decimal" or "FixedPoint" > (especially since these don't seem to handle complex numbers).
Python floats are C doubles underneath, so you're stuck. You need extended numeric types. Decimal is slow as molasses, and was not designed for mathematical work (rather for finance-type fixed-point work). Use this instead: http://calcrpnpy.sourceforge.net/clnumManual.html Cheers, f -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list