How does Python manage int and long?

int and long were “unified” a few versions back. Before that it was possible to overflow an int through math ops.

3.x has further advanced this by eliminating long altogether and only having int.

  • Python 2sys.maxint contains the maximum value a Python int can hold.
    • On a 64-bit Python 2.7, the size is 24 bytes. Check with sys.getsizeof().
  • Python 3sys.maxsize contains the maximum size in bytes a Python int can be.
    • This will be gigabytes in 32 bits, and exabytes in 64 bits.
    • Such a large int would have a value similar to 8 to the power of sys.maxsize.

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