Python long() Function

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The Python long() function is used to represent integers of arbitrary size, allowing you to work with extremely large numbers that exceeded the limits of regular integers.

The long() function from Python 2 has been deprecated in Python 3. Instead, Python 3 uses the built-in int() function, which can handle arbitrarily large integers.

Syntax

Following is the syntax of Python long() function −

long(x [,base])

Parameters

This function takes two parameters as shown below −

• x − It represents the value that you want to convert to a long integer.

• base (optional) − It specifies the base of the number in 'x'. It can be any integer from 2 to 36. If not provided, the default base is "10".

Return Value

This function returns a long object.

Example

Following is an example of the Python long() function. Here, we have a large integer "number". We use the long() function to explicitly convert it into a long integer −

number = 123456789012345678901234567890
long_number = long(number)
print('The long value obtained is:',long_number)

Output

Following is the output of the above code −

('The long value obtained is:', 123456789012345678901234567890L)

Example

Here, we are converting a string representation of a large number into a long integer using the long() function −

string_number = "987654321098765432109876543210"
long_number = long(string_number)
print('The long value obtained is:',long_number)

Output

Output of the above code is as follows −

('The long value obtained is:', 987654321098765432109876543210L)

Example

Now, we are performing arithmetic operations with long integers, explicitly using the long() function for conversion −

num1 = 123456789012345678901234567890
num2 = 987654321098765432109876543210
result = long(num1) + long(num2)
print('The addition of the long value obtained is:',result)

Output

The result obtained is as shown below −

('The addition of the long value obtained is:', 1111111110111111111011111111100L)

Example

In Python 2, we can use regular integers and long integers together in expressions. In this example, we combine (add) a regular integer with a long integer "num1" −

regular_integer = 42
num1 = 123456789012345678901234567890
combined_result = regular_integer + long(num1)
print('The long value obtained is:',combined_result)

Output

We get the output as shown below −

('The long value obtained is:', 123456789012345678901234567932L)

Example

In the example below, the result of a large exponentiation operation automatically gets promoted to a long integer, displaying the automatic handling of long integers in Python 2 −

small_number = 12345
result = small_number ** 20
print('The long value obtained is:',result)

Output

The output produced is as follows −

('The long value obtained is:', 6758057543099832246538913025974955939211204840442478677426191001091098785400390625L)