Why is a round-trip conversion via a string not safe for a double?

I found the bug. .NET does the following in clr\src\vm\comnumber.cpp: DoubleToNumber(value, DOUBLE_PRECISION, &number); if (number.scale == (int) SCALE_NAN) { gc.refRetVal = gc.numfmt->sNaN; goto lExit; } if (number.scale == SCALE_INF) { gc.refRetVal = (number.sign? gc.numfmt->sNegativeInfinity: gc.numfmt->sPositiveInfinity); goto lExit; } NumberToDouble(&number, &dTest); if (dTest == value) { gc.refRetVal = NumberToString(&number, ‘G’, DOUBLE_PRECISION, gc.numfmt); goto lExit; } DoubleToNumber(value, … Read more

Set back default floating point print precision in C++

You can get the precision before you change it, with std::ios_base::precision and then use that to change it back later. You can see this in action with: #include <ios> #include <iostream> #include <iomanip> int main (void) { double d = 3.141592653589; std::streamsize ss = std::cout.precision(); std::cout << “Initial precision = ” << ss << ‘\n’; … Read more

What class to use for money representation?

Never use a floating point number to represent money. Floating numbers do not represent numbers in decimal notation accurately. You would end with a nightmare of compound rounding errors, and unable to reliably convert between currencies. See Martin Fowler’s short essay on the subject. If you decide to write your own class, I recommend basing … Read more