Is there an equivalent of the decimal type in D?

[Sean Kelly]

Bill Baxter wrote:
> Sean Kelly wrote:
>> I'm not sure that accuracy is a problem--at least not compared to 
>> fixed-point BCD.  The essential issue with using base 2 floating point 
>> for problems where the user expects an "exact" result in base 10 is 
>> that of representation.  Simply put, some numbers that have an exact 
>> representation in base 10 are infinitely repeating numbers in base 2, 
>> and vice-versa.  This is why a calculation resulting in 1.5 in base 10 
>> displays as 1.4999... in base 2.  But as far as accuracy is concerned, 
>> I'm sure you'll agree that 1.4999... is not terribly far from 1.5 :-) 
>> Of course, finance folks don't see it this way because if you display 
>> 1.4999 on a report it doesn't match what they expect and they scream 
>> and yell.
> 
> Bad example.  1.5 *is* exactly representable in base 2 floating point. 
> 2^0 + 2^-1 :-)

Oops! :-)


Sean