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15.4 Accuracy and Range

A floating-point number is just another 32-bit value, so can be stored in LONG variables. It's just the interpretation of the 32-bits which makes them different. A floating-point number can range from numbers as small as 1.3E-38 to numbers as large as 3.4E+38 (that's very small and very large if you don't understand the scientific notation!). However, not every number in this range can accurately be represented, since the number of significant digits is roughly eight.

Accuracy is an important consideration when trying to compare two floating-point numbers and when combining floating-point values after dividing them. It is usually best to check that a floating-point value is in a small range of values, rather than just a particular value. And when combining values, allow for a small amount of error due to rounding etc. See the Reference Manual for more details about the implementation of floating-point numbers.


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