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Python float representation error?

try running this in python:

print [39.95]

the output i get is:
[39.950000000000003]

what's up with that?

Mar 26 '06 #1
3 1546
ma*********@email.com wrote:
try running this in python:

print [39.95]

the output i get is:
[39.950000000000003]

what's up with that?


This comes from the imprecision in representing base-10 fractions as
binary. Try "print [str(39.95)]".

If you want to print a list, maybe:

print map(str, alist)

James

--
James Stroud
UCLA-DOE Institute for Genomics and Proteomics
Box 951570
Los Angeles, CA 90095

http://www.jamesstroud.com/
Mar 27 '06 #2
> try running this in python:

print [39.95]

the output i get is:
[39.950000000000003]

what's up with that?


That's perfectly normal - some numbers aren't exactly expressible as
binary floating points, just like 1/3 isn't expressible as a decimal
floating point number.

Here's a good link on floating point arithmetic:
http://docs.sun.com/source/806-3568/ncg_goldberg.html

Mar 27 '06 #3
ma*********@email.com <ma*********@email.com> wrote:
try running this in python:

print [39.95]

the output i get is:
[39.950000000000003]

what's up with that?


Why not start by reading the Python online tutorial? Specifically
<http://docs.python.org/tut/node16.html>?
Alex
Mar 27 '06 #4

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