Java 6 Illuminated: An Active Learning Approach, 2nd Edition

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Binary representation of

floating-point numbers is

discussed in Appendix E.

REFERENCE POINT

5.8 Comparing Floating-Point Numbers 239

5.8 Comparing Floating-Point Numbers

As we explain in Appendix E, floats and doubles are stored using IEEE 754

standard format, which can introduce minor rounding errors when arith-

metic is performed. That said, it is not advisable to simply rely on the

equality operators to compare floating-point numbers.

Let’s take a look at Example 5.8, which computes 11 * .1 two ways. First, at

line 11, we assign .0 to a double variable, d1, and at lines 12–22 we add .1 to

d1 eleven times. Then, at line 24, we declare a second double ...