What range of numbers can be represented in a 16-, 32- and 64-bit IEEE-754 systems?

Question

I know a little bit about how floating-point numbers are represented, but not enough, I\'m afraid.

The general question is:

For a given preci

Answer 1

The precision quoted form Peter R's link to the MSDN ref is probably a good rule of thumb, but of course reality is more complicated.

The fact that the "point" in "floating point" is a binary point and not decimal point has a way of defeating our intuitions. The classic example is 0.1, which needs a precision of only one digit in decimal but isn't representable exactly in binary at all.

If you have a weekend to kill, have a look at What Every Computer Scientist Should Know About Floating-Point Arithmetic. You'll probably be particularly interested in the sections on Precision and Binary to Decimal Conversion.