CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#distributionbigintegergaussian
Dr. Strangelove
Dr. Strangelove

Reputation: 3328

Very large number manipulations in C#

I need to create random numbers between 100,000 and 100,000,000 using Erlang distribution. As it mentioned on the linked page, parameter x could be any number [0, +infinity); hence my range of values is theoretically acceptable.

However, when calculating the probability density function, the returned value is always 0 and that is because raising e to the power of -\lambda * x which with such big x values is always zero.

I need to be able to raise e to such big powers (indeed very small powers (e.g., -40,000)). My application is in .NET4.5 and I checked system.numerics namespace. However, so far I was not able to figure out how to perform this calculation.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 134

Answers (2)

Teodor Kurtev
Teodor Kurtev

Reputation: 1049

For big floating point numbers you could use BigRational. This answer has a nice explanation about it.

Upvotes: 2

Geoffrey
Geoffrey

Reputation: 976

The default floating point numbers in .NET don't have the precision that you are looking for, because as you pointed out, the value of such exponents is smaller than the precision of the number (hence the 0 values).

If you want to stick to C#, why not use a wrapper for an arbitrary precision library.

http://gnumpnet.codeplex.com/

Upvotes: 0

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