views:

172

answers:

3

I've got a really big number: 5799218898. And want to shift it right to 13 bits.
So, windows-calculator or python gives me:

5799218898 >> 13 | 100010100100001110011111100001 >> 13
70791            | 10001010010000111

As expected.

But Javascript:

5799218898 >> 13 | 100010100100001110011111100001 >> 13
183624           | 101100110101001000

I think it because of internal integer representation in javascript, but cannot find anything about that.

+6  A: 

In ECMAScript (Javascript) bitwise operations are always in 32-bit. Therefore 5799218898 is chopped into 32-bit which becomes 1504251602. This integer >> 13 gives 183624.

In Python they are arbitrary-length integers. So there's no problem.

(And the numbers in Windows calculator are 64-bit, enough to fit 5799218898.)

(And the correct answer should be 707912.)

KennyTM
Andrew
+2  A: 

The number you have (5799218898) is beyond 32 bits. You didn't mention the JavaScript engine you're testing with, but it's very likely that it is 32-bit.

To test, trim the "5" at the beginning of your number so that you fall inside the 32-bit boundary. Then your shift should work fine.

Ates Goral
I'm using Firefox 3.6 on 64bit system
Andrew
All JavaScript engines use 64-bit floating point numbers, and convert to 32-bit integers for bitwise operations, regardless of the architecture. It's defined in the ECMAScript standard.
Matthew Crumley
+1  A: 

As Nicholas Zakas states:

Even though JavaScript numbers are technically stored in 64-bits, integer values are treated as if they’re 32 bits whenever bitwise operators are involved.

Marcel Korpel