integer limits and 1 minute rule

[karenhunt6116]

Should my program still solve in 1 minute when the problem involves integers greater than the limit of my programming language?

[stijn263]

Almost all problems are designed such that they can be solved with normal 64 bit integers. What programming language are you using and which problem are you trying to solve?

[karenhunt6116]

Thank you for your response.

I am using VBA for excel. I am trying to solve problem 290.

[stijn263]

I don't know whether excel supports 64 bit, but in a language like that it's perfectly fine to follow the 15 minute rule

[karenhunt6116]

Thanks again.

I just checked with the IT Manager. It is most likely my computer is a 32-bit integer machine.

[quilan]

Thanks again.

I just checked with the IT Manager. It is most likely my computer is a 32-bit integer machine.

It's not that; many/most languages feature 64-bit data types even on 32-bit integer machines. VBA on the other hand, only really has the Currency type that's 64-bit and the Decimal type that's 96-bit. Problem is that manipulating Currency/Decimal objects is a wonky affair at best. I really loathe saying this, but if you're going to tackle a lot of the more recent problems (which usually require 64-bit math), you'd really really really really be doing yourself a favor by using a programming language designed for complicated processing (eg. Python, C++ for easy learning, something like ML or Haskell if you want to challenge yourself & learn new paradigms).

My 2c.