Ruby Pocket Reference

Numbers

Numbers are not primitives; each number is an object, an instance of one of Ruby’s numeric classes. Numeric is Ruby’s base class for numbers. The numeric class Fixnum is used for integers, fixed-length numbers with bit lengths of the native machine word, minus 1. The Float class is for floating-point numbers, which use the native architecture’s double-precision floating-point representation internally. The Bignum class is used to hold integers larger than Fixnum can hold. Bignums are created automatically if any operation or assignment yields a result too large for Fixnum. The only limitation on the size integer Bignum can represent is the available memory in the operating system:

2411       # integer, of class Fixnum
2_411      # integer, of class Fixnum, underscore ignored
241.1      # float, of class Float
3.7e4      # scientific notation, of class Float
3E4        # scientific notation, of class Float
3E-4       # scientific notation, with sign before
             exponent
0444       # octal, of class Fixnum
0xfff      # hexadecimal, of class Fixnum
0b1101     # binary, of class Fixnum
4567832704 # integer, of class Bignum

Figure 1 shows a hierarchy of Ruby’s math classes.

Figure 1. Hierarchy of Ruby math classes