title: Convert a very large number from decimal string to binary representation?
body: <p>I have a very big number, on the order of a thousand decimal digits, and I have to convert this to its binary representation. The numbers are stored as strings.</p>
  
  <p>Since few languages have a basic data type to handle numbers this big, I see no easy way to turn this into an integral value for which I could convert it.</p>
  
  <p>Could someone please help me out here? What would be a viable approach for doing this?</p>