Menu
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using one instead of the other in C++?
279
double has 2x more precision than float. float is a 32-bit IEEE 754 single precision Floating Point Number – 1 bit for the sign, 8 bits for the exponent, and 23* for the value. float has 7 decimal digits of precision.
Use float or double ? The precision of a floating point value indicates how many digits the value can have after the decimal point. The precision of float is only six or seven decimal digits, while double variables have a precision of about 15 digits. Therefore it is safer to use double for most calculations.
A float uses less memory than a double, so if you don't need your number to be the size of a double, you might as well use a float since it will take up less memory. Just like you wouldn't use a bus to drive yourself and a friend to the beach... you would be far better off going in a 2 seater car.
You should use double instead of float for precise calculations, and float instead of double when using less accurate calculations. Float contains only decimal numbers, but double contains an IEEE754 double-precision floating point number, making it easier to contain and computate numbers more accurately.
If you want to know the true answer, you should read What Every Computer Scientist Should Know About Floating-Point Arithmetic.
In short, although double allows for higher precision in its representation, for certain calculations it would produce larger errors. The "right" choice is: use as much precision as you need but not more and choose the right algorithm.
Many compilers do extended floating point math in "non-strict" mode anyway (i.e. use a wider floating point type available in hardware, e.g. 80-bits and 128-bits floating), this should be taken into account as well. In practice, you can hardly see any difference in speed -- they are natives to hardware anyway.
181
Unless you have some specific reason to do otherwise, use double.
Perhaps surprisingly, it is double and not float that is the "normal" floating-point type in C (and C++). The standard math functions such as sin and log take doubles as arguments, and return doubles. A normal floating-point literal, as when you write 3.14 in your program, has the type double. Not float.
On typical modern computers, doubles can be just as fast as floats, or even faster, so performance is usually not a factor to consider, even for large calculations. (And those would have to be large calculations, or performance shouldn't even enter your mind. My new i7 desktop computer can do six billion multiplications of doubles in one second.)
24
If you love us? You can donate to us via Paypal or buy me a coffee so we can maintain and grow! Thank you!
Donate Us With
