Multiplication of very long integers

Question

Is there an algorithm for accurately multiplying two arbitrarily long integers together? The language I am working with is limited to 64-bit unsigned integer length (maximum int

Answer 1

Most languages have functions or libraries that do this, usually called a Bignum library (GMP is a good one.)

If you want to do it yourself, I would do it the same way that people do long multiplication on paper. To do this you could either work with strings containing the number, or do it in binary using bitwise operations.

Example:

  45
 x67
 ---
 315
+270
----
 585

Or in binary:

   101
  x101
  ----
   101
  000
+101
------
 11001

Edit: After doing it in binary I realized that it would be much simpler (and faster of course) to code using bitwise operations instead of strings containing the base-10 numbers. I've edited my binary multiplying example to show a pattern: for each 1-bit in the bottom number, add the top number, bit-shifted left the position of the 1-bit times to a variable. At the end, that variable will contain the product.

To store the product, you'll have to have two 64-bit numbers and imagine one of them being the first 64 bits and the other one the second 64 bits of the product. You'll have to write code that carries the addition from bit 63 of the second number to bit 0 of the first number.