Why converting from float to double changes the value?

java floating-point double precision ieee-754
arthursfreire picture arthursfreire · Jul 6, 2013 · Viewed 28.3k times · Source

I've been trying to find out the reason, but I couldn't. Can anybody help me?

Look at the following example.

float f = 125.32f;
System.out.println("value of f = " + f);
double d = (double) 125.32f; 
System.out.println("value of d = " + d);

This is the output:

value of f = 125.32
value of d = 125.31999969482422

Answer

Eric Postpischil picture Eric Postpischil · Jul 7, 2013

The value of a float does not change when converted to a double. There is a difference in the displayed numerals because more digits are required to distinguish a double value from its neighbors, which is required by the Java documentation. That is the documentation for toString, which is referred (through several links) from the documentation for println.

The exact value for 125.32f is 125.31999969482421875. The two neighboring float values are 125.3199920654296875 and 125.32000732421875. Observe that 125.32 is closer to 125.31999969482421875 than to either of the neighbors. Therefore, by displaying “125.32”, Java has displayed enough digits so that conversion back from the decimal numeral to float reproduces the value of the float passed to println.

The two neighboring double values of 125.31999969482421875 are 125.3199996948242045391452847979962825775146484375 and 125.3199996948242329608547152020037174224853515625.
Observe that 125.32 is closer to the latter neighbor than to the original value (125.31999969482421875). Therefore, printing “125.32” does not contain enough digits to distinguish the original value. Java must print more digits in order to ensure that a conversion from the displayed numeral back to double reproduces the value of the double passed to println.

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