(gawk.info.gz) Floating Point Issues

Info Catalog (gawk.info.gz) Basic Data Typing (gawk.info.gz) Basic Concepts
 
 D.3 Floating-Point Number Caveats
 =================================
 
 As mentioned earlier, floating-point numbers represent what are called
 "real" numbers, i.e., those that have a fractional part.  `awk' uses
 double precision floating-point numbers to represent all numeric
 values.  This minor node describes some of the issues involved in using
 floating-point numbers.
 
    There is a very nice paper on floating-point arithmetic
 (http://www.validlab.com/goldberg/paper.pdf) by David Goldberg, "What
 Every Computer Scientist Should Know About Floating-point Arithmetic,"
 `ACM Computing Surveys' *23*, 1 (1991-03), 5-48.  This is worth reading
 if you are interested in the details, but it does require a background
 in computer science.
 

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* String Conversion Precision The String Value Can Lie.
* Unexpected Results          Floating Point Numbers Are Not Abstract
                                 Numbers.
* POSIX Floating Point Problems Standards Versus Existing Practice.
 
Info Catalog (gawk.info.gz) Basic Data Typing (gawk.info.gz) Basic Concepts
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