[Fwd: Formatted Read Accuracy]

[Eljay Love-Jensen]

Hi Blime,

Floating point numbers -- IEEE 754, 32-bit "float", 64-bit "double", or any 
of the other more-or-less standard formats -- cannot perfectly represent 
any arbitrary decimal portion of all rational numbers.

For instance, 0.5 can be perfectly represented.

Consider that "0.5" (decimal) is "0.8" (hexadecimal).  Exactly.

0.1 cannot be perfectly represented.

Consider that "0.1" (decimal) would be 
"0.1999999999999999999999999999999..." (hexadecimal).  Since floating point 
numbers do not have infinite precision, some rounding occurs.

To alleviate the problem, consider using fixed point numbers, or using BCD 
numbers.

Sincerely,
--Eljay