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Fractional numbers are supported on most programming languages as floating-point numbers or fixed-point numbers. However, such representations typically restrict the denominator to a power of two. Most decimal fractions (or most fractions in general) cannot be represented exactly as a fraction with a denominator that is a power of two.
To approximate the greater range and precision of real numbers, we have to abandon signed integers and fixed-point numbers and go to a "floating-point" format. In the decimal system, we are familiar with floating-point numbers of the form (scientific notation): 1.1030402 × 10 5 = 1.1030402 × 100000 = 110304.02. or, more compactly: 1.1030402E5
For example, the decimal numbers 0.1 and 0.01 cannot be represented exactly as binary floating-point numbers. In the IEEE 754 binary32 format with its 24-bit significand, the result of attempting to square the approximation to 0.1 is neither 0.01 nor the representable number closest to it. The decimal number 0.1 is represented in binary as e ...
If a decimal string with at most 6 significant digits is converted to the IEEE 754 single-precision format, giving a normal number, and then converted back to a decimal string with the same number of digits, the final result should match the original string. If an IEEE 754 single-precision number is converted to a decimal string with at least 9 ...
The otherwise binary Wang VS machine supported a 64-bit decimal floating-point format in 1977. [2] The Motorola 68881 supported a format with 17 digits of mantissa and 3 of exponent in 1984, with the floating-point support library for the Motorola 68040 processor providing a compatible 96-bit decimal floating-point storage format in 1990. [2]
For the next range, from 2 53 to 2 54, everything is multiplied by 2, so the representable numbers are the even ones, etc. Conversely, for the previous range from 2 51 to 2 52, the spacing is 0.5, etc. The spacing as a fraction of the numbers in the range from 2 n to 2 n+1 is 2 n−52.
This decimal format can also represent any binary fraction a/2 m, such as 1/8 (0.125) or 17/32 (0.53125). More generally, a rational number a/b, with a and b relatively prime and b positive, can be exactly represented in binary fixed point only if b is a power of 2; and in decimal fixed point only if b has no prime factors other than 2 and/or 5.
Dot-decimal notation is a presentation format for numerical data. It consists of a string of decimal numbers, using the full stop (dot) as a separation character. [1]A common use of dot-decimal notation is in information technology where it is a method of writing numbers in octet-grouped base-10 numbers. [2]