answersLogoWhite

0


Best Answer

You can read some details in the Wikipedia article "floating point", especially the "History" section. It isn't worthwhile to copy large amounts of this text here. Nowadays, the most commonly used format is the IEEE 754 format.

User Avatar

Wiki User

10y ago
This answer is:
User Avatar

Add your answer:

Earn +20 pts
Q: Discuss the different formats of floating point numbers?
Write your answer...
Submit
Still have questions?
magnify glass
imp
Continue Learning about Engineering

What are the three parts of a floating-point number?

Assuming you're asking about IEEE-754 floating-point numbers, then the three parts are base, digits, and exponent.


Write a pseudocode statement that declares the variable cost so it can hold real numbers?

floating-point variable cost


What is the benefit of float data type?

Floating type numbers can't be stored in integer type variables. If we do that then their fractional part will be lost. So, we use float data type to store numbers with fractional parts.


What is a type as a term that relates to programming?

Computer programs store and handle data; this data can come in different types. For example, some languages define numeric types, which can further be subdivided into integers and floating-point numbers (i.e. numbers that don't accept decimals, and numbers that do), dates, boolean or logical data (can only contain the values "true" or "false"), strings (to store text or other symbols), and others.Classes are a way to define additional (user-defined) types. Such user-defined types usually consist of several other data types. For example, you might decide that to store information about a point in space, you need three coordinates - 3 floating-point numbers, one for each of the 3 coordinates.


Does a number stored as an integer take up less space in the computer's memory than a floating points number?

It depends on the particular implementation's representation of integer and floating point number. The IEEE 754-2008 standard provides four basic resolutions, 16 bits (not common), 32 bit, 64 bits, and 128 bits (also not common). At the same time, integers can be 8 bits, 16 bits, 32 bits, 64 bits (in 64 bit platforms and some libraries on 32 bit platforms) and 128 bits (not common). In general, if you want to keep resolution down to the units digit, you can store a larger number in an integer than you can in a floating point, due to overhead in the exponent, but, at the same time, due to the scalability of floating point numbers, you can store larger numbers in floating point numbers if you are willing to lose resolution on the low-order end.

Related questions

How many different formats of floating point numbers are there?

10000


What are different formats for displaying numbers in a cell?

The are many different formats that numbers can be wrote in. You can use percents, fractions, decimals, currency, or in a currency format. These formats can be used in Microsoft Excel.


How are floating point numbers handled as binary numbers?

Floating point numbers are typically stored as numbers in scientific notation, but in base 2. A certain number of bits represent the mantissa, other bits represent the exponent. - This is a highly simplified explanation; there are several complications in the IEEE floating point format (or other similar formats).Floating point numbers are typically stored as numbers in scientific notation, but in base 2. A certain number of bits represent the mantissa, other bits represent the exponent. - This is a highly simplified explanation; there are several complications in the IEEE floating point format (or other similar formats).Floating point numbers are typically stored as numbers in scientific notation, but in base 2. A certain number of bits represent the mantissa, other bits represent the exponent. - This is a highly simplified explanation; there are several complications in the IEEE floating point format (or other similar formats).Floating point numbers are typically stored as numbers in scientific notation, but in base 2. A certain number of bits represent the mantissa, other bits represent the exponent. - This is a highly simplified explanation; there are several complications in the IEEE floating point format (or other similar formats).


What are the formats for displaying numbers in a cell?

There are many different formats for displaying numbers in an Excel cell including a general format, a currency format, a percentage format and an accounting format.


How many numbers in a vin on a 1979 car?

VINs were first used From 1954 to 1981, there was no accepted standard for these numbers, so different manufacturers used different formats.


What are the different formats for displaying number in a cell?

Numbers can be formatted in far more than 3 ways. There are various number formats such as currency, percentage, fraction, general, scientific and others. Numbers can also be dates and times. Other forms of formatting include alignment such as left, right and center, and sizes and different colours and other kinds of formatting.


What is general format in Excel?

Data can take different formats. For example, numbers can be displayed with or without decimal points or as currency or percentage and other formats. Dates can be shown with just numbers or with words for the month and the day, or showing month, then day or day, then month. So all of these things are formatting. There are many data types and they can be formatted in different ways to suit what the user of the spreadsheet wants.


Digital formats are descriptions of signals as?

a long string of numbers


Do number formats affect how numbers look on screen when printed?

yes


How many digits are in a frequent flyer number?

Yes, there are many different formats. Below, are a few. Hope this helps. A=Alpha #=Number DELTA 10 # AMERICAN 7 A/# SPIRIT 9 # UNITED 8 A/# TURKISH 9 # SOUTHWEST 11 # JET BLUE 10 # ALASKA 9 #


Can you use the PMT function in Excel to display dates in many different formats?

The PMT function returns the payment amount for a loan, so it has nothing to do with how dates are displayed. It returns numbers.


Is .5 the same as 0.5?

Yes, .5 is the same as 0.5, the only difference would be the number of significant figures used.