Single more 'powerful' than Integer although both use same amount of bytes ???

[Chris]

Hi,

a Single and Integer variable each take 4 bytes.
(check on :
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...rpdatatype.asp)

But how come then that the range for valid values for an integer is
-2,147,483,648 through 2,147,483,647
(OK: 2pow32 = 4,294,967,296 e09 different posibillities )

and for a single

-3.4028235E+38 through -1.401298E-45 for negative values
1.401298E-45 through 3.4028235E+38 for positive values.

so many more values with the same amount of 32 bits ????

Any logical explanation for this ?

thnx

Christian

[Armin Zingler]

"Chris" <ch********@pandora.be> schrieb

Hi,

a Single and Integer variable each take 4 bytes.
(check on :
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...rpdatatype.asp)
But how come then that the range for valid values for an integer
is
-2,147,483,648 through 2,147,483,647
(OK: 2pow32 = 4,294,967,296 e09 different posibillities )

and for a single

-3.4028235E+38 through -1.401298E-45 for negative values
1.401298E-45 through 3.4028235E+38 for positive values.

so many more values with the same amount of 32 bits ????

Any logical explanation for this ?

3.4028235E+38 is a large number, but the first ~30 decimal places are zero.
In other words, in opposite to an integer value, the step size for a high
single value is not 1 but it is 1E+38, so there are "some" numbers between
missing (higher numbers->less accuracy). The total number of different
Integer values is (at least approximately) equal to the total number of
different Single values.
--
Armin

http://www.plig.net/nnq/nquote.html
http://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

* "Chris" <ch********@pandora.be> scripsit:

and for a single

-3.4028235E+38 through -1.401298E-45 for negative values
1.401298E-45 through 3.4028235E+38 for positive values.

so many more values with the same amount of 32 bits ????

<http://research.microsoft.com/~hollasch/cgindex/coding/ieeefloat.html>
<http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;de;42980>

--
Herfried K. Wagner
MVP · VB Classic, VB.NET
<http://www.mvps.org/dotnet>