perl -e ' for $j (1000,1_000_000,1_000_000_000) { $i=$j**2; print "\n",$j,": \t",$i,"\t= "; printf "%020.0f", $i; }' 1000: 1000000 = 00000000000001000000 1000000: 1000000000000 = 00000001000000000000 1000000000: 1e+18 = 01000000000000000000