Float to binary

Question

I\'m trying to convert a floating point number to binary representation; how can I achieve this? My goal is, however, not to be limited by 2m so I\'m hoping for something th

Answer 1

This isn't the same style of binary representation that you want, but this will convert an IEEE 754 into it's sign, mantissa and base, which can be used to create a hex representation in a fairly straightforward fashion. Note that the 'value' of the mantissa is 1+BINARY, where BINARY is the binary representation - hence the -1 in the return.

I wrote this code and am declaring it public domain.

    def disect_float(f):
      f = float(f); #fixes passing integers
      sign = 0x00; #positive
      exp = 0;
      mant = 0;
      if(f < 0): #make f positive, store the sign
        sign = '-'; #negative
        f = -f;
      #get the mantissa by itself
      while(f % 1 > 0): #exp is positive
        f*=2
        exp+=1
      #while(f % 1 > 0):
      tf = f/2;
      while(tf % 1 <= 0): #exp is negative
        exp-=1;
        f=tf;
        tf=f/2;
        if(exp < -1024): break;
      mant=int(f);
      return sign, mant-1, exp;