«

Hello,

what is the disadvantage of using floating point numbers in boolean
comparisons. For example,

why using #define FALSE 0.0 will produce error instead of #define FALSE
0?

kasiyil schreef:

Hi There,

> Hello,
>
> what is the disadvantage of using floating point numbers in boolean
> comparisons. For example,
>
> why using #define FALSE 0.0 will produce error instead of #define FALSE
> 0?


The
#define FALSE 0.0
will not produce an error, it's legal c(++).
It's better style to write:
const double FALSE = 0.0;
but they should work kinda alike.

There are a lot of disadvantages, allmost to many to start, but the
main one is that you are mixing types. Bools are used to express
boolean values, doubles are used to express numbers. The world is far
more simpler if everybody tries to do this!

And did you know that c++ had an build-in constant called 'false'? I'd
use that one if I was you.

Good luck,
colander

On 1 Sep 2006 05:28:22 -0700 in comp.lang.c++, "kasiyil"
<> wrote,
>what is the disadvantage of using floating point numbers in boolean
>comparisons.

Floating point numbers are complicated things. Booleans are much
simpler. It's better to keep things simple.

Floating point is used where you can tolerate approximate results.
Boolean true and false are exact. Never expect an exact result from
floating point.

"kasiyil" <> wrote in message
news: ups.com...
> Hello,
>
> what is the disadvantage of using floating point numbers in boolean
> comparisons. For example,
>
> why using #define FALSE 0.0 will produce error instead of #define FALSE
> 0?

They don't produce errors afaik, although you may not always get what you
expect. The main caveat is trying to compair a floating point number to an
exact number.

if ( MyFloat == 12.5 )
//...

MyFloat may appear to be 12.5, but may actually be something like
12.499999999999999 or such.

Other than that, I really don't userstand what you are asking.

Jim Langston wrote:
> "kasiyil" <> wrote in message
> news: ups.com...
>> Hello,
>>
>> what is the disadvantage of using floating point numbers in boolean
>> comparisons. For example,
>>
>> why using #define FALSE 0.0 will produce error instead of #define
>> FALSE 0?
>
> They don't produce errors afaik, although you may not always get what
> you expect. The main caveat is trying to compair a floating point
> number to an exact number.
>
> if ( MyFloat == 12.5 )
> //...
>
> MyFloat may appear to be 12.5, but may actually be something like
> 12.499999999999999 or such.

Curiously enough, you picked a rather bad example. 12.5 is most likely
represented _precisely_. It's just 25/2. N/2^k (for N fitting in 50 bits
or so and ||k|| below 1023) can be precisely represented. 1/3 cannot, for
example.

V
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On Fri, 1 Sep 2006 16:08:44 -0400 in comp.lang.c++, "Victor Bazarov"
<> wrote,
>Curiously enough, you picked a rather bad example. 12.5 is most likely
>represented _precisely_. It's just 25/2. N/2^k (for N fitting in 50 bits
>or so and ||k|| below 1023) can be precisely represented. 1/3 cannot, for
>example.

1/3 is not so surprising to people who are used to decimal
arithmetic. 1.10 us surprising.

David Harmon wrote:
> On Fri, 1 Sep 2006 16:08:44 -0400 in comp.lang.c++, "Victor Bazarov"
> <> wrote,
>> Curiously enough, you picked a rather bad example. 12.5 is most
>> likely represented _precisely_. It's just 25/2. N/2^k (for N
>> fitting in 50 bits or so and ||k|| below 1023) can be precisely
>> represented. 1/3 cannot, for example.
>
> 1/3 is not so surprising to people who are used to decimal
> arithmetic. 1.10 us surprising.

1/3 can be represented precisely in ternary, though... <g>

V
--
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