Float and Double: 1/3 + 2/3 = 0.99999999….

Rob Eamon wrote about why 1/3 + 2/3 = 0.99999999….

Some excerpts:

Roedy Green’s Java Glossary (http://mindprod.com/jglossfloatingpoint.html) discusses floating point in Java at some length. He offers insight on why developers should not be surprised at the inaccuracy of floating point:

[0.1 is a repeater fraction in binary.] It is like the repeater fraction 1/3 = 0.33333 in base 10. When you add 0.333333… to 0.666666… why are you not astonished to get 0.999999… rather than 1.0, even though you just added 1/3 + 2/3 to get 1? Yet, with Java floating point you are astonished when you add 0.1 + 0.1 and get something other than 0.2.

It is clear that when using float and double types in Java, some care must be taken to ensure proper behavior for the task at hand. For financial applications, where accuracy is paramount, float and double may need to be avoided altogether.

Here’s the full article :

http://www.wmusers.com/ezine/2002oct1_reamon_1.shtml

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