Type Double (Output Precision)?

[FutureWebDev]

When testing the output of a variable of type double, with expected results = 48.66573405, I am getting an actual result = 48.6657.

Why is the expected result being rounded when the whole idea of using type double is to increase the precision of your calculations?

Thanks
FWD

[StuXYZ]

I expect that you wrote somthing like this: std::cout<<"result == "<<a<<std::endl; . The problem with that is the default precision, for output, is 6. The number itself is of a higher precision.
If you write this

#include <iostream>
#include  <iomanip>   
 
int main()
{
double a=1.2345678901234567890;

std::cout<<std::setprecision(20);
std::cout<<"results ="<<a<<std::endl;
// Not all numbers are now in precision 20.

The following code give you something like : 1.1234567890123456912
That is because [for my 64 bit machine -- sizeof(double) == 8 bytes] the precision of double is about 14/15 decimal places. [and I got lucky with the roundoff for the 16th ;) ]

You will get more decimal points and a bigger exponent range if you use long double. If you need a larger precision for something, then there is the gmp [gnu multiple-precision library] http://gmplib.org/, which is only limited by your computer memory and speed.

Overall I am normally very very disappointed with the way that formating is done in C++. I basically rely on the boost::format http://live.boost.org/doc/libs/1_39_0/libs/format/doc/format.htmlsystem which is much more printf like but with slightly more type checking, and slightly better error messages.

[FutureWebDev]

I expect that you wrote somthing like this: std::cout<<"result == "<<a<<std::endl; . The problem with that is the default precision, for output, is 6. The number itself is of a higher precision.
If you write this

#include <iostream>
#include  <iomanip>   
 
int main()
{
double a=1.2345678901234567890;

std::cout<<std::setprecision(20);
std::cout<<"results ="<<a<<std::endl;
// Not all numbers are now in precision 20.

The following code give you something like : 1.1234567890123456912
That is because [for my 64 bit machine -- sizeof(double) == 8 bytes] the precision of double is about 14/15 decimal places. [and I got lucky with the roundoff for the 16th ;) ]

You will get more decimal points and a bigger exponent range if you use long double. If you need a larger precision for something, then there is the gmp [gnu multiple-precision library] http://gmplib.org/, which is only limited by your computer memory and speed.

Overall I am normally very very disappointed with the way that formating is done in C++. I basically rely on the boost::format http://live.boost.org/doc/libs/1_39_0/libs/format/doc/format.htmlsystem which is much more printf like but with slightly more type checking, and slightly better error messages.

Thanks StuXYZ. Great answer and explanation. Question answered!

FWD