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C: convert double to float, preserving decimal point precision

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i wanted to convert double to float in C, but wanted to preserve the decimal point exactly as possible without any changes...

for example, let's say i have

   double d = 0.1108;
   double dd = 639728.170000;
   double ddd = 345.2345678

now correct me if i am wrong, i know that floating point precision is about 5 numbers after the dot. can i get those five numbers after the dot exactly as the double had it? so that above results as follows:

   float f = x(d);
   float ff = x(dd);
   float fff = x(ddd);

   printf("%f\n%f\n%f\n", f, ff, fff);

it should print

   0.1108
   639728.17000
   345.23456

all digits after the precision limit (which i assume as 5) would be truncated.

like image 255
sdfg Avatar asked Aug 16 '10 23:08

sdfg


Video Answer


1 Answers

float and double don't store decimal places. They store binary places: float is (assuming IEEE 754) 24 significant bits (7.22 decimal digits) and double is 53 significant bits (15.95 significant digits).

Converting from double to float will give you the closest possible float, so rounding won't help you. Goining the other way may give you "noise" digits in the decimal representation.

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {
    double orig = 12345.67;
    float f = (float) orig;
    printf("%.17g\n", f); // prints 12345.669921875
    return 0;
}

To get a double approximation to the nice decimal value you intended, you can write something like:

double round_to_decimal(float f) {
    char buf[42];
    sprintf(buf, "%.7g", f); // round to 7 decimal digits
    return atof(buf);
}
like image 170
dan04 Avatar answered Oct 12 '22 01:10

dan04