Paul, this gives the usual error. (the reason I don't just plug the values for $a and $b in is that I want to pass them from a separate program... incidentally, putting quotes around the $a and/or $b either before or after I put them into new() doesn't change anything! thanks! dave #!perl -w use Math::BigInt; $a = 1111111111111; $b = 12345; $a1 = Math::BigInt->new($a); $b1 = Math::BigInt->new($b); $c = $a1 / $b1; print $c; ***** Want to unsubscribe from this list? ***** Send mail with body "unsubscribe" to mac-perl-request@iis.ee.ethz.ch