Program not entering if statement

Question

In my python program, an if statement is not being entered. I have simplified the code to the following:

x = -5
while x < 5:
    if (x == 0):
        prin         


        

Answer 1

This is a rounding issue - decimal values cannot be represented exactly in binary, so x never exactly equals 0.0000000000....

try replacing if (x == 0): with if -0.001 < x < 0.001:

BTW, the parentheses are unnecessary in a python if statement.

edit: Printing out the values between -1 and 1 in steps of 0.01 shows this is the case - where zero should be it prints 7.52869988574e-16.