What is the modulo operator for longs in Java?

Question

How do I find the modulo (%) of two long values in Java? My code says 'Integer number too large' followed by the number I'm trying to mod. I tried casting it to a long but it didn't work. Do I have to convert it to a BigInteger and use the remainder method? Thanks.

Answer 1

The % operator does work for longs. It sounds like you may have forgotten to stick L at the end of a numeric literal, as in 123456789L. Can we see your code?

Answer 2

You can only have an integer up to 2 147 483 647. If you want to go bigger than that, say 3 billion, you must specify it to be a long

class Descartes {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        long orig = Long.MAX_VALUE;
        long mod = orig % 3000000000; // ERROR 3000000000 too big
        long mod = orig % 3000000000L; // no error, specified as a long with the L
    }
}

Keep in mind that you can use capital OR lowercase L, but it's advisable to use capital, since the lowercase looks remarkably similar to the number 1.

Answer 3

You can also try working with the BigInteger class which has a remainder() method that works similarly to %.