Converting a float to a string without rounding it

Question

I'm making a program that, for reasons not needed to be explained, requires a float to be converted into a string to be counted with len(). However, str(float(x)) results in x being rounded when converted to a string, which throws the entire thing off. Does anyone know of a fix for it? Here's the code being used if you want to know:

len(str(float(x)/3))

Answer 1

Some form of rounding is often unavoidable when dealing with floating point numbers. This is because numbers that you can express exactly in base 10 cannot always be expressed exactly in base 2 (which your computer uses).

For example:

>>> .1
0.10000000000000001

In this case, you're seeing .1 converted to a string using repr:

>>> repr(.1)
'0.10000000000000001'

I believe python chops off the last few digits when you use str() in order to work around this problem, but it's a partial workaround that doesn't substitute for understanding what's going on.

>>> str(.1)
'0.1'

I'm not sure exactly what problems "rounding" is causing you. Perhaps you would do better with string formatting as a way to more precisely control your output?

e.g.

>>> '%.5f' % .1
'0.10000'
>>> '%.5f' % .12345678
'0.12346'

Documentation here.