Representing big numbers in source code for readability?

Question

Is there a more human-readable way for representing big numbers in the source code of an application written in C++ or C?

let\'s for example take the number 2,

Answer 1

You could use a preprocessor macro

  #define BILLION (1000*1000*1000)

then code e.g. (4*BILLION) ; if you care about large power of two just ust 1<<30

PS Notice that 1e6 is a double literal (same as 1.0e6)

And you could also:

1. patch the GCC lexer to accept 1_234_567 notation for number literals and publish that patch for conformance with GPLv3 and free software spirit.
   ^{probably in file libpp/lex.c and/or gcc/c-family/c-lex.c and/or gcc/cpp/lex.c of future GCC 4.8, i.e. current trunk.}
2. lobby the C & C++ standardization groups to get that accepted in future C or C++ standards.