Articles with the ‘Bug’ Tag - Exploring Binary

Fifteen Digits Don’t Round-Trip Through SQLite Reals

By Rick Regan December 3rd, 2010

I’ve discovered that decimal floating-point numbers of 15 significant digits or less don’t always round-trip through SQLite. Consider this example, executed on version 3.7.3 of the pre-compiled SQLite command shell:

sqlite> create table t1(d real);
sqlite> insert into t1 values(9.944932e+31);
sqlite> select * from t1;
9.94493200000001e+31

SQLite represents a decimal floating-point number that has real affinity as a double-precision binary floating-point number — a double. A decimal number of 15 significant digits or less is supposed to be recoverable from its double-precision representation. In SQLite, however, this guarantee is not met; this is because its floating-point to decimal conversion routine is implemented in limited-precision floating-point arithmetic.

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Quick and Dirty Floating-Point to Decimal Conversion

By Rick Regan November 12th, 2010

In my article “Quick and Dirty Decimal to Floating-Point Conversion” I presented a small C program that uses double-precision floating-point arithmetic to convert decimal strings to binary floating-point numbers. The program converts some numbers incorrectly, despite using an algorithm that’s mathematically correct; its limited precision calculations are to blame. I dubbed the program “quick and dirty” because it’s simple, and overall converts reasonably accurately.

For this article, I took a similar approach to the conversion in the opposite direction — from binary floating-point to decimal string. I wrote a small C program that combines two mathematically correct algorithms: the classic “repeated division by ten” algorithm to convert integer values, and the classic “repeated multiplication by ten” algorithm to convert fractional values. The program uses double-precision floating-point arithmetic, so like its quick and dirty decimal to floating-point counterpart, its conversions are not always correct — though reasonably accurate. I’ll present the program and analyze some example conversions, both correct and incorrect.

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Inconsistent Rounding of Printed Floating-Point Numbers

By Rick Regan October 13th, 2010

What does this C program print?

#include <stdio.h>
int main (void)
{
 printf ("%.1f\n",0.25);
}

The answer depends on which compiler you use. If you compile the program with Visual C++ and run on it on Windows, it prints 0.3; if you compile it with gcc and run it on Linux, it prints 0.2.

The compilers — actually, their run time libraries — are using different rules to break decimal rounding ties. The two-digit number 0.25, which has an exact binary floating-point representation, is equally near two one-digit decimal numbers: 0.2 and 0.3; either is an acceptable answer. Visual C++ uses the round-half-away-from-zero rule, and gcc (actually, glibc) uses the round-half-to-even rule, also known as bankers’ rounding.

This inconsistency of printed output is not limited to C — it spans many programming environments. In all, I tested fixed-format printing in nineteen environments: in thirteen of them, round-half-away-from-zero was used; in the remaining six, round-half-to-even was used. I also discovered an anomaly in some environments: numbers like 0.15 — which look like halfway cases but are actually not when viewed in binary — may be rounded incorrectly. I’ll report my results in this article.

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Double Rounding Errors in Floating-Point Conversions

By Rick Regan August 11th, 2010

Double rounding is when a number is rounded twice, first from n₀ digits to n₁ digits, and then from n₁ digits to n₂ digits. Double rounding is often harmless, giving the same result as rounding once, directly from n₀ digits to n₂ digits. However, sometimes a doubly rounded result will be incorrect, in which case we say that a double rounding error has occurred.

For example, consider the 6-digit decimal number 7.23496. Rounded directly to 3 digits — using round-to-nearest, round half to even rounding — it’s 7.23; rounded first to 5 digits (7.2350) and then to 3 digits it’s 7.24. The value 7.24 is incorrect, reflecting a double rounding error.

In a computer, double rounding occurs in binary floating-point arithmetic; the typical example is a calculated result that’s rounded to fit into an x87 FPU extended precision register and then rounded again to fit into a double-precision variable. But I’ve discovered another context in which double rounding occurs: conversion from a decimal floating-point literal to a single-precision floating-point variable. The double rounding is from full-precision binary to double-precision, and then from double-precision to single-precision.

In this article, I’ll show example conversions in C that are tainted by double rounding errors, and how attaching the ‘f’ suffix to floating-point literals prevents them — in gcc C at least, but not in Visual C++!

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Incorrect Directed Conversions in David Gay’s strtod()

By Rick Regan June 23rd, 2010

For correctly rounded decimal to floating-point conversions, many open source projects rely on David Gay’s strtod() function. In the default rounding mode, IEEE 754 round-to-nearest, this function is known to give correct results (notwithstanding recent bugs, which have been fixed). However, in the less frequently used IEEE 754 directed rounding modes — round toward positive infinity, round toward negative infinity, and round toward zero — strtod() gives incorrectly rounded results for some inputs.

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Visual C++ and GLIBC strtod() Ignore Rounding Mode

By Rick Regan June 18th, 2010

When a decimal number is converted to a binary floating-point number, the floating-point number, in general, is only an approximation to the decimal number. Large integers, and most decimal fractions, require more significant bits than can be represented in the floating-point format. This means the decimal number must be rounded, to one of the two floating-point numbers that surround it.

Common practice considers a decimal number correctly rounded when the nearest of the two floating-point numbers is chosen (and when both are equally near, when the one with significant bit number 53 equal to 0 is chosen). This makes sense intuitively, and also reflects the default IEEE 754 rounding mode — round-to-nearest. However, there are three other IEEE 754 rounding modes, which allow for directed rounding: round toward positive infinity, round toward negative infinity, and round toward zero. For a conversion to be considered truly correctly rounded, it must honor all four rounding modes — whichever is currently in effect.

I evaluated the Visual C++ and glibc strtod() functions under the three directed rounding modes, like I did for round-to-nearest mode in my articles “Incorrectly Rounded Conversions in Visual C++” and “Incorrectly Rounded Conversions in GCC and GLIBC”. What I discovered was this: they only convert correctly about half the time — pure chance! — because they ignore the rounding mode altogether.

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Incorrectly Rounded Conversions in GCC and GLIBC

By Rick Regan June 3rd, 2010

Visual C++ rounds some decimal to double-precision floating-point conversions incorrectly, but it’s not alone; the gcc C compiler and the glibc strtod() function do the same. In this article, I’ll show examples of incorrect conversions in gcc and glibc, and I’ll present a C program that demonstrates the errors.

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Incorrectly Rounded Conversions in Visual C++

By Rick Regan May 28th, 2010

In my analysis of decimal to floating-point conversion I noted an example that was converted incorrectly by the Microsoft Visual C++ compiler. I’ve found more examples — including a class of examples — that it converts incorrectly. I will analyze those examples in this article.

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