Do you have a scientific calculator? If you do you should be able to convert the number format between decimal and some other format... eg hexadecimal. THis will significantly reduce the number of digits required to represent your number. In the same way binary (base 2) to decimal (base 10) conversion works...eg.
binary (base 2) 1010101010101010101 is equivalent to
decimal(base 10)349525 which is equivalent to
hexadecimal (base16)55555
The "saving" in digits come s from the base of numerals available to represent a number.
Bnary: two numerals available 0 and 1
Decimal: 10 numerals available 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9
Hexadecimal: 16 numerals avaialable 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E and F.
YOu may have noticed hexadecimal quite e bit in html when defining colours. It is quite useful here because of the wide range of colours that can be represented with only 6 hexadecimal digits.
I hope that helps you.