PRB: Setting DECIMALS to 15 or More Produces Incorrect Result (131003)
The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows 3.0
- Microsoft FoxPro for Windows 2.6a
This article was previously published under Q131003 SYMPTOMS
When you use SET DECIMAL to set DECIMAL to 15 or more, certain mathematical
calculations produce an incorrect result.
CAUSE
Some numbers when represented in a floating point format have no exact
representation. For example, this is 1/3 where as .33333333 is in fact
slightly less than 1/3.
However, some numbers that do have exact floating point representations
still exhibit this behavior. See the "Steps to Reproduce Behavior" section
for an example.
STATUS
Microsoft is researching this issue and will post new information here in
the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.
Steps to Reproduce Problem- Launch Visual FoxPro.
- In the Command window, enter the following, one line at a time:
SET DECIMALS TO 14
? 32.16/4
- Observe the results in the active output window. You should see
8.04000000000000. This is exactly correct.
- Repeat step 2, but this time set decimals to 15.
- Observe the results. You should see 8.039999999999999. This is
incorrect, and demonstrates this problem.
| Modification Type: | Major | Last Reviewed: | 10/15/2003 |
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| Keywords: | KB131003 |
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