(gawk.info.gz) Floating Point Issues
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(gawk.info.gz) Basic Data Typing
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D.3 Floating-Point Number Caveats
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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.
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(gawk.info.gz) Basic Data Typing
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