You might also want to look at the gmpy module. It is an interface between Python and the GMP multiple-precision library. gmpy provides an invert function that does exactly what you need:
>>> import gmpy
>>> gmpy.invert(1234567, 1000000007)
mpz(989145189)
Updated answer
As noted by @hyh , the gmpy.invert()
returns 0 if the inverse does not exist. That matches the behavior of GMP's mpz_invert()
function. gmpy.divm(a, b, m)
provides a general solution to a=bx (mod m)
.
>>> gmpy.divm(1, 1234567, 1000000007)
mpz(989145189)
>>> gmpy.divm(1, 0, 5)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ZeroDivisionError: not invertible
>>> gmpy.divm(1, 4, 8)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ZeroDivisionError: not invertible
>>> gmpy.divm(1, 4, 9)
mpz(7)
divm()
will return a solution when gcd(b,m) == 1
and raises an exception when the multiplicative inverse does not exist.
Disclaimer: I'm the current maintainer of the gmpy library.
Updated answer 2
gmpy2 now properly raises an exception when the inverse does not exists:
>>> import gmpy2
>>> gmpy2.invert(0,5)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ZeroDivisionError: invert() no inverse exists
pow
function for this:y = pow(x, -1, p)
. See bugs.python.org/issue36027. It only took 8.5 years from the question being asked to a solution appearing in the standard library! – Velvety