uinteger

A module for unsigned integer math.

use integer;
print ~0; # print -1
print +(-1) >> 1; # print -1
use uinteger;
print ~0; # print a large number
print -1; # print a large number
print +(-1) >> 1; # print a large number

This module makes the add, subtract, multiply and unary minus operators work with their arguments and results as unsigned integers.

Since perl normally uses unsigned integer math for many other bit-type operators (left and right shift, bitwise boolean operators) this allows you to easily re-implement functions from C that work with unsigned integer math.

Note that use integer; largely also works for the add, subtract, multiply and unary minus operators, but produces signed integers. Through the properties of two's complement match you can then convert these results to unsigned values by performing a bit-wise operator such as $x | 0 on the result.

Unfortunately you need to do that outside of use integer; since that makes most of the bit-type operators also work with signed integers, producing negative numbers if the high bit is set, and propagating the sign bit for right shifts.

use uinteger lets you avoid this mixed processing.

You may or may not get faster code - if you want speed for this type of processing you should use XS or Inline::C