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float(3head) [opensolaris man page]

float.h(3HEAD)							      Headers							    float.h(3HEAD)

NAME
float.h, float - floating types SYNOPSIS
#include <float.h> DESCRIPTION
The characteristics of floating types are defined in terms of a model that describes a representation of floating-point numbers and values that provide information about an implementation's floating-point arithmetic. The following parameters are used to define the model for each floating-point type: s sign (+-1) b base or radix of exponent representation (an integer >1) e exponent (an integer between a minimum e(min) and a maximum e(max)) p precision (the number of base-b digits in the significand) f(k) non-negative integers less than b (the significand digits) In addition to normalized floating-point numbers (f(1)>0 if x!=0), floating types might be able to contain other kinds of floating-point numbers, such as subnormal floating-point numbers (x!=0, e=e(min), f(1)=0) and unnormalized floating-point numbers (x!=0, e=e(min), f(1)=0), and values that are not floating-point numbers, such as infinities and NaNs. A NaN is an encoding signifying Not-a-Number. A quiet NaN propagates through almost every arithmetic operation without raising a floating-point exception; a signaling NaN generally raises a floating-point exception when occurring as an arithmetic operand. The accuracy of the library functions in math.h(3HEAD) and complex.h(3HEAD) that return floating-point results is defined on the libm(3LIB) manual page. All integer values in the <float.h> header, except FLT_ROUNDS, are constant expressions suitable for use in #if preprocessing directives; all floating values are constant expressions. All except DECIMAL_DIG, FLT_EVAL_METHOD, FLT_RADIX, and FLT_ROUNDS have separate names for all three floating-point types. The floating-point model representation is provided for all values except FLT_EVAL_METHOD and FLT_ROUNDS. The rounding mode for floating-point addition is characterized by the value of FLT_ROUNDS: -1 Indeterminable. 0 Toward zero. 1 To nearest. 2 Toward positive infinity. 3 Toward negative infinity. The values of operations with floating operands and values subject to the usual arithmetic conversions and of floating constants are evalu- ated to a format whose range and precision might be greater than required by the type. The use of evaluation formats is characterized by the architecture-dependent value of FLT_EVAL_METHOD: -1 Indeterminable. 0 Evaluate all operations and constants just to the range and precision of the type. 1 Evaluate operations and constants of type float and double to the range and precision of the double type; evaluate long double opera- tions and constants to the range and precision of the long double type. 2 Evaluate all operations and constants to the range and precision of the long double type. The values given in the following list are defined as constants. o Radix of exponent representation, b. FLT_RADIX o Number of base-FLT_RADIX digits in the floating-point significand, p. FLT_MANT_DIG DBL_MANT_DIG LDBL_MANT_DIG o Number of decimal digits, n, such that any floating-point number in the widest supported floating type with p(max) radix b dig- its can be rounded to a floating-point number with n decimal digits and back again without change to the value. DECIMAL_DIG o Number of decimal digits, q, such that any floating-point number with q decimal digits can be rounded into a floating-point num- ber with p radix b digits and back again without change to the q decimal digits. FLT_DIG DBL_DIG LDBL_DIG o Minimum negative integer such that FLT_RADIX raised to that power minus 1 is a normalized floating-point number, e(min). FLT_MIN_EXP DBL_MIN_EXP LDBL_MIN_EXP o Minimum negative integer such that 10 raised to that power is in the range of normalized floating-point numbers. FLT_MIN_10_EXP DBL_MIN_10_EXP LDBL_MIN_10_EXP o Maximum integer such that FLT_RADIX raised to that power minus 1 is a representable finite floating-point number, e(max). FLT_MAX_EXP DBL_MAX_EXP LDBL_MAX_EXP o Maximum integer such that 10 raised to that power is in the range of representable finite floating-point numbers. FLT_MAX_10_EXP DBL_MAX_10_EXP LDBL_MAX_10_EXP The values given in the following list are defined as constant expressions with values that are greater than or equal to those shown: o Maximum representable finite floating-point number. FLT_MAX DBL_MAX LDBL_MAX The values given in the following list are defined as constant expressions with implementation-defined (positive) values that are less than or equal to those shown: o The difference between 1 and the least value greater than 1 that is representable in the given floating-point type, b^1 - p. FLT_EPSILON DBL_EPSILON LDBL_EPSILON o Minimum normalized positive floating-point number, b^e(min)^-1. FLT_MIN DBL_MIN LDBL_MIN ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes: +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |Interface Stability |Standard | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ SEE ALSO
complex.h(3HEAD), math.h(3HEAD), attributes(5), standards(5) SunOS 5.11 17 Dec 2003 float.h(3HEAD)
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