string to float conversion?

Question

I'm wondering what sort of algorithm could be used to take something like "4.72" into a float data type, equal to

float x = 4.72;

Answer 1

scanf, operator>> for istreams, and strtof would be the obvious choices.

There is also atof, but, like atoi, it lacks a way to tell you there was an error in the input, so it's generally best to avoid both.