Not a Number of Floating Point Problems

By: Gary T. Leavens

Abstract

Floating-point numbers and floating-point arithmetic contain some surprising pitfalls. In particular, the widely-adopted IEEE 754 standard contains a number that is “not a number,” and thus has some surprising properties. One has to be extremely careful in writing assertions about floating point numbers, to avoid these pitfalls.

Cite as:

Gary T. Leavens, “Not a Number of Floating Point Problems”, Journal of Object Technology, Volume 5, no. 2 (March 2006), pp. 75-83, doi:10.5381/jot.2006.5.2.c8.

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The JOT Journal   |   ISSN 1660-1769   |   DOI 10.5381/jot   |   AITO   |   Open Access   |    Contact