Re^2: Non-integer print output???

> (Maybe the question you should ask is "Why does the ** operator always return an NV ?". I don't know.)

The exponentiation operator a**b is IIRC optimized to generally handle float input for a and b and is approximating the result.

The result is hence usually a float.

Cheers Rolf
_{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)

Wikisyntax for the Monastery}

Comment on Re^2: Non-integer print output???

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Re^3: Non-integer print output??? by syphilis (Archbishop) on Sep 10, 2021 at 14:33 UTC
The exponentiation operator ab is IIRC optimized to generally handle float input for a and b and is approximating the result. Does this arise because C's pow/powl/powq functions take floating point inputs and return floating point values ? I've always assumed so, without ever really knowing. I'm a little surprised that the C language doesn't provide a pow() function that takes and returns signed long int (or signed long long int) values - though I guess such a function would easily overflow for relatively low input values. Cheers, Rob	[reply]
Re^4: Non-integer print output??? by bliako (Abbot) on Sep 10, 2021 at 17:18 UTC
interesting discussion here on what's the optimum way to do integer exponentiation, squaring is the standard but not the most optimal. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/101439/the-most-efficient-way-to-implement-an-integer-based-power-function-powint-int	[reply]
Re^4: Non-integer print output??? by LanX (Saint) on Sep 10, 2021 at 15:45 UTC
As I said, it's AFAIR an approximation algorithm. I quickly found efficient integer algorithms too, can't tell why they are not included. I suppose it's provided by the CPU/ MMU? Cheers Rolf _{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :) Wikisyntax for the Monastery}	[reply]