Why don't computers store decimal numbers as a second whole number?

Posted by SomeKittens on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by SomeKittens
Published on 2012-10-02T21:12:12Z Indexed on 2012/10/02 21:50 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 379

Filed under:

numbers

|

numeric-precision

Computers have trouble storing fractional numbers where the denominator is something other than a solution to 2^x. This is because the first digit after the decimal is worth 1/2, the second 1/4 (or 1/(2^1) and 1/(2^2)) etc.

Why deal with all sorts of rounding errors when the computer could have just stored the decimal part of the number as another whole number (which is therefore accurate?)

The only thing I can think of is dealing with repeating decimals (in base 10), but there could have been an edge solution to that (like we currently have with infinity).

© Programmers or respective owner

Related posts about numbers

read numbers from files in columns, one column whole numbers, other column numbers with decimals

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
int price=' '; // attempt to grab a decimal number - but not the correct way int itemnum=' '; // attempt to grab a whole number - but not the right way while((price== (price*1.00)) && (itemnum == (itemnum*1))) What is a way to get numbers in 2 diff columns where one column is whole numbers… >>> More
C code won't compile

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Please help me to understand why the following code will not compile: #include <stdio.h> //#include <iostream> //using namespace std; int main(void){ int i,k,x,y,run,e,r,s,m,count=0; char numbers[19][19]; for(i=0;i<19;i++){ for (k=0;k<19;k++){ numbers[i][k]='… >>> More
Regex : Matching phone numbers starting with NNN and having 10 numbers

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I need to match phone numbers that : start with 010 or 012 or 016 or 019 Consist of 10 numbers exactly can you please help me on how to match numbers using PHP and regex thanks >>> More
How to convert sequence of numbers in an array to range of numbers

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
In javascript how to convert sequence of numbers in an array to range of numbers? eg. [2,3,4,5,10,18,19,20] to [2-5,10,18-20] >>> More
program to print odd numbers and even numbers on seperate threads

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi, I am learning programming using pthreads. How can I write a program to print odd numbers and even numbers on separate threads. >>> More

Related posts about numeric-precision

Why don't computers store decimal numbers as a second whole number?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
Computers have trouble storing fractional numbers where the denominator is something other than a solution to 2^x. This is because the first digit after the decimal is worth 1/2, the second 1/4 (or 1/(2^1) and 1/(2^2)) etc. Why deal with all sorts of rounding errors when the computer could have… >>> More
Handling extremely large numbers in a language which can't?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I'm trying to think about how I would go about doing calculations on extremely large numbers (to infinitum - intergers no floats) if the language construct is incapable of handling numbers larger than a certain value. I am sure I am not the first nor the last to ask this question but the search… >>> More
Numerical precision of double type in Visual C++ 2008 Express debugger

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I'm using Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition and when i debug code: double x = 0.2; I see in debugging tooltip on x 0.20000000000000001 but: typedef numeric_limits< double > double_limit; int a = double_limit::digits10 gives me: a = 15 Why results in debugger are longer than maybe ? What… >>> More
Heroku taps push weirdness...

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have the strangest experience using taps to move data between my machine and heroku. It works fine except that it seems to loose 0s directly behind the decimal place for my geo coordinates. Ie 50.0519322 for some reason gets set to 50.519322... no idea why. When I pull the data from the remote… >>> More