Non-Terminating Float Values

[javaprog200]

Hello Members,

I have a basic java question about non-terminating float values:

public class FloatandDouble
{
    public static void main(String args[]){
        float a =  1.0f/3.0f;
        System.out.println (a); 
        System.out.println (b); 
    }
}

The output of the program is 0.33333334. Why is it not 0.33333333?

Thank you

[JamesCherrill]

Because float values are stored in binary, just 1s and 0s, and the fractional part is made up from the values 1/2, 1/4, 1/8. 1/16, 1/32 etc
But there's no way to represent the value 1/3 exactly with any finite number of those fractions. So the last digit will always be slightly wrong. It's the same for 1/5, 1/7 etc They cannot be exactly represented in a binary floating point number.

[javaprog200]

Hello James,

Thank you for the reply!