Also, you've stretched the requested precision to 17 decimal digits, which might be a contributing factor

After anonymonks post above about printf inventing stuff, I explored the possibility, and from what I can tell, if you ask printf for more precision than is available, it just pads with trailing zeros:

printf "dp:%u : %35.*f\n", $_, $_, 3.1415926535897932384626433832795 f
+or 14 .. 20;;
dp:14 :                    3.14159265358979
dp:15 :                   3.141592653589793
dp:16 :                  3.1415926535897931
dp:17 :                 3.14159265358979310
dp:18 :                3.141592653589793100
dp:19 :               3.1415926535897931000
dp:20 :              3.14159265358979310000

[download]

And:

[0] Perl> printf "dp:%u : %.*f\n", $_, $_, 123e-308 for 300 .. 320;;
dp:300 : 0.000 {300 zeros ellided} 000000000000
dp:301 : 0.000 {300 zeros ellided} 0000000000000
dp:302 : 0.000 {300 zeros ellided} 00000000000000
dp:303 : 0.000 {300 zeros ellided} 000000000000000
dp:304 : 0.000 {300 zeros ellided} 0000000000000000
dp:305 : 0.000 {300 zeros ellided} 00000000000000000
dp:306 : 0.000 {300 zeros ellided} 000000000000000001
dp:307 : 0.000 {300 zeros ellided} 0000000000000000012
dp:308 : 0.000 {300 zeros ellided} 00000000000000000123
dp:309 : 0.000 {300 zeros ellided} 000000000000000001230
dp:310 : 0.000 {300 zeros ellided} 0000000000000000012300
dp:311 : 0.000 {300 zeros ellided} 00000000000000000123000
dp:312 : 0.000 {300 zeros ellided} 000000000000000001230000
dp:313 : 0.000 {300 zeros ellided} 0000000000000000012300000
dp:314 : 0.000 {300 zeros ellided} 00000000000000000123000000
dp:315 : 0.000 {300 zeros ellided} 000000000000000001230000000
dp:316 : 0.000 {300 zeros ellided} 0000000000000000012300000000
dp:317 : 0.000 {300 zeros ellided} 00000000000000000123000000000
dp:318 : 0.000 {300 zeros ellided} 000000000000000001230000000000
dp:319 : 0.000 {300 zeros ellided} 0000000000000000012300000000000
dp:320 : 0.000 {300 zeros ellided} 00000000000000000123000000000000

[download]
If you want reliable rounding and accuracy with floating point values, use Math::MPFR.

I was actually hoping for simple truncation. I'm only using Math::BigFloat in an attempt to verify my double-double implementation.

And what I've realised/discovered is that the mistake is when M::BF translates the double value when performing the subtraction above.

If I do the translation myself, I get sensible numbers:

use Math::BigFloat;;

$n = Math::BigFloat->new( '3.1415926535897932384626433832795' );;

$d = 0 + $n->bstr;;

printf "%.17f\n", $d;;
3.14159265358979310

$bfd = Math::BigFloat->new( sprintf "%.17f", $d );;
print $bfd;;
3.1415926535897931

$n -= $bfd;;
print $n;;
0.0000000000000001384626433832795

[download]

Which gives me:

    3.14159265358979310
  + 0.0000000000000001384626433832795
  = 3.1415926535897932384626433832795 == 3.141592653589793238462643383
+2795 (the input)

[download]

And that's all I was after.

With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday'
Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
I'm with torvalds on this Agile (and TDD) debunked I told'em LLVM was the way to go. But did they listen!

In reply to Re^4: Math::BigFloat to native double? by BrowserUk
in thread Math::BigFloat to native double? by BrowserUk

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