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Re: st: string to number -- limitations


From   [email protected] (William Gould)
To   [email protected]
Subject   Re: st: string to number -- limitations
Date   Sun, 13 Oct 2002 10:19:31 -0500

From: baum <[email protected]>

Kompal Sinha <[email protected]> wrote, 

> Hi there, I have converted a 15 digit string into a numerical number by
> using real() command. My problem is that now the data is read as floats
> while I want it to be in doubles as the string happens to be the caseId of
> my data. How do I proceed??

and Kit Baum <[email protected]> replied, 

  Very bad idea. There is no way of representing this many digits reliably as
  a floating point number, even using double precision; [...]
                           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

(emphasis added).

Kit is right about the "very bad idea" with respect to -float-, but not with
respect to -double-.  The problem arises at 16 digits, not 15.  Below I
demonstrate that 15 digits work:

        . input double x 

                      x
          1. 999999999999990
          2. 999999999999991
          3. 999999999999992
          4. 999999999999993
          5. 999999999999994
          6. 999999999999995
          7. 999999999999996
          8. 999999999999997
          9. 999999999999998
         10. 999999999999999
         11. end

        . format x %20.0g

        . list

                                x
          1.      999999999999990
          2.      999999999999991
          3.      999999999999992
          4.      999999999999993
          5.      999999999999994
          6.      999999999999995
          7.      999999999999996
          8.      999999999999997
          9.      999999999999998
         10.      999999999999999
                  ----+----1----+

The above numbers have 15 digits.  Here is what happens if we repeat the
experiment with 16 digits:


        . input double x 

                      x
          1. 9999999999999990
          2. 9999999999999991
          3. 9999999999999992
          4. 9999999999999993
          5. 9999999999999994
          6. 9999999999999995
          7. 9999999999999996
          8. 9999999999999997
          9. 9999999999999998
         10. 9999999999999999
         11. end

        . format x %20.0g

        . list

                                x
          1.     9999999999999990
          2.     9999999999999992
          3.     9999999999999992
          4.     9999999999999992  
          5.     9999999999999994
          6.     9999999999999996
          7.     9999999999999996
          8.     9999999999999996
          9.     9999999999999998
         10.    10000000000000000

Double-precision numbers use 51+1 = 52 bits for the significand (+1 because
one bit is "implied").  Thus, the largest integer that can be stored is all 52
bits on, which is (2^53)-1 = (9.007e+15)-1.  The largest 15 digit integer is
999999999999999 = 9.99999999999999e+14, and that is below the limit.

My advice to Kompal is to count your digits carefully be be sure that you
have 15 and not 16, and then to use -double-.

-- Bill
[email protected]


P.S.  I bet I know why Kit made the error because I almost made it myself.
      A 15-digit number, I said to myself, that's like 9.999...e+15, yes?
      No, a 15-digit number is 9.999...e+14.
<end>
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