On Mon, Oct 29, 2012 at 7:05 AM, Dave Angel <d...@davea.name> wrote:
>
> Actually, it's 64 bits. 32 bit fp wouldn't get you anywhere near 18 digits.
A double has 53 bits of precisions, which is 53*log10(2) =~ 15.955
decimal digits. However, one often sees the numbers 15 and 17 quoted
for the precision. It depends. A double is guaranteed to accurately
store a string with 15 decimal digits (round trip). But each 15-digit
decimal string maps to many doubles:
>>> from struct import unpack
>>> format(unpack('d', '\x76\x99\x99\x99\x99\x99\xb9?')[0], '.15f')
'0.100000000000000'
>>> format(unpack('d', '\xbd\x99\x99\x99\x99\x99\xb9?')[0], '.15f')
'0.100000000000000'
>>> 0xbd - 0x76 + 1 # doubles that round to 0.100000000000000
72
(Note: my Intel processor is little endian, so the least significant
byte is index 0 in the packed double, such as '\x76....'.)
However, to exactly represent each double requires 17 decimal digits:
>>> format(unpack('d', '\x76\x99\x99\x99\x99\x99\xb9?')[0], '.17f')
'0.09999999999999951'
>>> format(unpack('d', '\x77\x99\x99\x99\x99\x99\xb9?')[0], '.17f')
'0.09999999999999952'
Python says the precision is 15 decimal digits:
>>> import sys
>>> sys.float_info.mant_dig # bits of precision
53
>>> sys.float_info.dig # decimal digits
15
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