What is the purpose of ldexp?

Question

I was wondering what people use the function ldexp() for in practical applications.

This is the description:

Returns the result of multiplying x (the significand) by 2 raised to the power of exp (the exponent).

Answer 1

ldexp and its dual, frexp, deal with the mantissa and exponent of a floating-point number. They provide a way to get at the internal representation without doing direct bit manipulation.

Answer 2

When used with frexp , the ldexp function is useful in situations that require repeated multiplication by 2. If the next multiplication causes an overflow or underflow, use frexp to separate the mantissa from the exponent. This gives you complete control over the exponent and the mantissa, so you can operate on them separately without any loss of precision. When you are finished, use ldexp to combine the mantissa and exponent again.

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