C:\Program Files>\Perl22\bin\perl.exe \perl22\bin\p1.pl printf "% 25.17g\n", -8.2727285363069939e-293;; -8.2727285363069883e-293 ## manually realigned to highlight the difference. [0]{} Perl> #### print join ' ', unpack 'a1 a11 a52', scalar reverse unpack 'b64', pack 'd', $_ for -8.2727285363069939e-293, -8.2727285363069883e-293;; 1 00000110100 1010011010101110110010001111100101000001001101001100 1 00000110100 1010011010101110110010001111100101000001001101000111