Why 0.1 + 0.2 != 0.3, or the mysterious world of floating-point numbers.

Yes, running the above expression in PHP, and in a lot of other languages, will confirm that 0.1 + 0.2 does not equal to 0.3.

But this weird behavior is explainable and even justified.

Floating point numbers can open you up a completely new universe.
Provided of course that they are properly used.

This talk will go through a bit of theory, and a lot of concrete examples.

From the Gulf War to the Quake graphics engine, via the Ariane 5 space rocket, we will see the benefits and the potential dangers of using floating-point numbers.

From these examples, we will extract some lessons we can translate into our day to day development practices.

And finally, the talk will cover when to use floating-point numbers, and when to avoid them, like when managing prices or billing, and what are the alternatives in those cases.

Transcript

1. Why
   Why
   0.1 + 0.2 != 0.3
   0.1 + 0.2 != 0.3
   The Mysterious World of Floating Point Numbers
   The Mysterious World of Floating Point Numbers
   Benoit Jacquemont
   Benoit Jacquemont
   @bjacquemont
   @bjacquemont
   

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2. if (0.1 + 0.2 != 0.3) {
   echo "0.1 + 0.2 is NOT EQUAL to 0.3\n";
   }
   0.1 + 0.2 is NOT EQUAL to 0.3
   

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3. $sum = 0.1 + 0.2;
   echo "Sum is ".$sum."\n";
   if ($sum != 0.3) {
   echo "$sum is NOT EQUAL to 0.3\n";
   }
   Sum is 0.3
   0.3 is NOT EQUAL to 0.3
   GO HOME
   GO HOME PHP
   PHP,
   ,
   

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4. Let's try the same in
   JavaScript
   if (0.1 + 0.2 != 0.3) {
   console.log('0.1 + 0.2 is NOT EQUAL to 0.3');
   }
   0.1 + 0.2 is NOT EQUAL to 0.3
   

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5. Let's continue with
   JavaScript...
   let sum = 0.1 + 0.2;
   console.log("Sum is " + sum);
   if (sum != 0.3) {
   console.log(sum + ' is NOT EQUAL to 0.3');
   }
   Sum is 0.30000000000000004
   0.30000000000000004 is NOT EQUAL to 0.3
   

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6. Why in PHP
   ?
   $sum = 0.1 + 0.2;
   echo "Sum is ".$sum."\n";
   if ($sum != 0.3) {
   echo "$sum is NOT EQUAL to 0.3\n";
   }
   Sum is 0.3
   0.3 is NOT EQUAL to 0.3
   

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7. The precision con g option
   No impact on the precision of the computation!
   Round oating point numbers for display
   php.net/manual/en/ini.core.php#ini.precision
   

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8. Increasing how many digits are
   displayed
   ini_set('precision', 17); // default 14
   $sum = 0.1 + 0.2;
   echo "Sum is ".$sum."\n";
   if ($sum != 0.3) {
   echo "$sum is NOT EQUAL to 0.3\n";
   }
   Sum is 0.30000000000000004
   0.30000000000000004 is NOT EQUAL to 0.3
   

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9. 0.1 + 0.2
   ==
   0.30000000000000004
   What is going on?
   

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10. Our computers are
    Our computers are
    binary
    binary
    0
    0 or
    or 1
    1
    How to represent something in
    How to represent something in
    between?
    between?
    

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11. Representing Real Numbers in
    Scienti c Notation
    0.006458
    6.458 x 10-3
    6 . 458 x 10 -3
    6: most signi cant digit, always non zero
    458: other signi cant digits
    -3: exponent
    3 parts, each representable by integers
    

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12. Binary Implementation
    0.0110111
    1 . 10111 x 2 -10
    Let's play with the exponent!
    Look ⇑, a oating point!
    

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13. 64 bits Floating Point Encoding
    sign
    1
    bit
    exponent
    11 bits
    significand
    52 bits
    

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14. Binary Floating Point to Decimal
    Representation
    000000000110000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000010101
    1.10101 x 23
    110.101
    1 1 0 . 1 0 1
    22= 4 21= 2 20= 1 2-1= ½ 2-2= ¼ 2-3= ⅛
    1.10101 x 22 = 4 + 2 + ½ + ⅛ = 6.625
    

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15. Floating Point Numbers
    Solve Another Integers
    Limitation:
    Size
    

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16. Largest Integer
    echo PHP_INT_MAX."\n";
    9223372036854775807
    9.22 x 1018
    

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17. Largest integer: 9.22 x 10
    Largest integer: 9.22 x 1018
    18
    Earthworms mass: 7.6 x 10
    Earthworms mass: 7.6 x 1012
    12 kg
    kg
    

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18. Largest integer: 9.22 x 10
    Largest integer: 9.22 x 1018
    18
    Oceans mass: 1.42 x 10
    Oceans mass: 1.42 x 1021
    21 kg
    kg
    

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19. Largest integer: 9.22 x 10
    Largest integer: 9.22 x 1018
    18
    Earth mass: 5.42 x 10
    Earth mass: 5.42 x 1024
    24 kg
    kg
    

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20. Largest integer: 9.22 x 10
    Largest integer: 9.22 x 1018
    18
    Milky way mass: 2.98 x 10
    Milky way mass: 2.98 x 1042
    42 kg
    kg
    

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21. Largest integer: 9.22 x 10
    Largest integer: 9.22 x 1018
    18
    Observable Universe mass:
    Observable Universe mass:
    1.5 x 10
    1.5 x 1053
    53 kg
    kg
    

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22. Integers are very limited
    in size
    

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23. Largest oating point
    number
    echo number_format(PHP_FLOAT_MAX, 0, "", "")."\n";
    1797693134862315708145274237317043567980705675258449965989174768031
    5726078002853876058955863276687817154045895351438246423432132688946
    4182768467546703537516986049910576551282076245490090389328944075868
    5084551339423045832369032229481658085593321233482747978262041447231
    68738177180919299881250404026184124858368
    1.80 x 10308
    290 orders of magnitude bigger than max integer
    

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24. Floating point numbers
    are better than integers at
    representing
    very small and very large
    numbers
    

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25. Float range is immensely
    wider than integers
    Integer: 1 to 9.2 x 1018
    vs
    Float: 2.25 x 10-308 to 1.80 x 10308
    But both use 64 bit storage...
    

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26. Float can only represent
    a small sample of the
    numbers inside the
    boundaries
    

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27. View Slide

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35. View Slide

36. Why
    0.1 + 0.2 ==
    0.30000000000000004
    ini_set('precision', 20);
    $op1 = 0.1;
    $op2 = 0.2;
    $expectedSum = 0.3;
    echo "Op #1: ".$op1."\n";
    echo "Op #2: ".$op2."\n";
    $actualSum = $op1 + $op2;
    echo "Actual Sum: ".$actualSum."\n";
    echo "Expected Sum: ".$expectedSum."\n";
    Op #1: 0.10000000000000000555 ← closest approximation of 0.1
    Op #2: 0.2000000000000000111 ← closest approximation of 0.2
    Actual Sum: 0.30000000000000004441 ← this is an approximation as well
    

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37. Floating point numbers rule #1:
    Most oat numbers are
    approximations
    

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38. How to have a consistent behavior
    between applications and
    hardware?
    754 Standard
    So most computers and programming languages have
    the same behavior
    

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39. Floating Point Numbers
    Dangers and Feats
    

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40. View Slide

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43. View Slide

44. Ariane 5 Maiden
    Flight
    4 June 1996
    Payload: 4 satellites of 1.2 T each.
    Total cost: $500 million
    

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45. View Slide

46. Oops...
    Oops...
    

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47. View Slide

48. View Slide

49. Same code as Ariane 4, but with 4x thrust...
    //64 bits float
    float horizontalVelocity = Inertial.getHorizontalVelocity();
    // conversion to 16 bits integer (max 32767)
    int correction = computeCorrection((int) horizontalVelocity);
    // overflow!
    applyHorizontalCorrection(correction);
    

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50. Lesson learned
    Converting oat to
    integer is highly risky
    Due to the oat wide range
    

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51. Same in PHP
    $myFloat = 600000000000000000000;
    $myInt = (int) $myFloat;
    echo $myInt."\n";
    -8742554432415203328
    No error, and the result doesn't make sense...
    

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52. The Gulf War & the
    The Gulf War & the
    Patriot Missile Event
    Patriot Missile Event
    

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53. View Slide

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67. View Slide

68. // return the time in seconds in a float
    $timeBefore = getElapsedTimeFromStartup();
    1
    2
    3
    sendRadarPingAndWaitForEcho();
    4
    5
    $timeAfter = getElapsedTimeFromStartup();
    6
    7
    $targetDistance = ($timeAfter - $timeBefore) * LIGHT_SPEED/2;
    8
    // return the time in seconds in a float
    $timeBefore = getElapsedTimeFromStartup();
    sendRadarPingAndWaitForEcho();
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    $timeAfter = getElapsedTimeFromStartup();
    6
    7
    $targetDistance = ($timeAfter - $timeBefore) * LIGHT_SPEED/2;
    8
    // return the time in seconds in a float
    $timeBefore = getElapsedTimeFromStartup();
    sendRadarPingAndWaitForEcho();
    $timeAfter = getElapsedTimeFromStartup();
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    $targetDistance = ($timeAfter - $timeBefore) * LIGHT_SPEED/2;
    8
    // return the time in seconds in a float
    $timeBefore = getElapsedTimeFromStartup();
    sendRadarPingAndWaitForEcho();
    $timeAfter = getElapsedTimeFromStartup();
    $targetDistance = ($timeAfter - $timeBefore) * LIGHT_SPEED/2;
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    

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69. Float rule #2
    The bigger a oat, the less precise it
    becomes
    aka Loss of precision
    

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70. // return the time in seconds in a float
    $timeBefore = getElapsedTimeFromStartup();
    sendRadarPingAndWaitForEcho();
    $timeAfter = getElapsedTimeFromStartup();
    $targetDistance = ($timeAfter - $timeBefore) * LIGHT_SPEED/2;
    The longer the missile battery runs,
    the less precise getElapsedTimeFromStartup()
    becomes
    

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71. Missile battery run time: 100 hours
    Inaccuray due to loss of precision: 0.3433s
    Scud missile speed: Mach 5
    Patriot missile offset to its target: 589m
    

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72. Lesson learned
    A oat number cannot be
    big and precise at the
    same time.
    

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73. But Floating Point
    numbers can bring cool
    stuff
    

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74. View Slide

75. Quake
    Quake
    Released in Feb. 1997
    Released in Feb. 1997
    Full real-time 3D
    Full real-time 3D
    rendering without 3D
    rendering without 3D
    accelerator
    accelerator
    Runs on a 60Mhz
    Runs on a 60Mhz
    Pentium
    Pentium
    

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76. Lesson learned
    Floating Point Numbers
    calculations are crazy fast
    

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77. What about
    us?
    

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78. About me
    E-COMMERCE
    MOBILE APPLICATION
    PRINT CATALOG
    POINTS OF SALE
    ERP
    MEDIA SERVER
    SUPPLIERS
    PURCHASING DPT
    MARKETING DPT
    CSV
    FTP
    XML
    XLS
    SUPPLIERS
    PORTAL
    ENRIC
    H
    TRAN
    SLATE
    CONTROL
    Single Source of Truth for Product Information
    

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79. View Slide

80. Storing real numbers in database
    mysql> CREATE TABLE my_float(f FLOAT);
    mysql> INSERT INTO my_float(f) VALUES(0.1);
    mysql> SELECT * FROM my_float;
    +------+
    | f |
    +------+
    | 0.1 |
    +------+
    mysql> SELECT * FROM my_float WHERE f = 0.1;
    Empty set (0.00 sec)
    mysql> SELECT ROUND(f, 17) FROM my_float;
    +---------------------+
    | ROUND(f, 17) |
    +---------------------+
    | 0.10000000149011612 |
    +---------------------+
    Loss of data due to approximation
    

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81. Storing real numbers with Decimal
    mysql> CREATE TABLE my_decimal(d DECIMAL(10,5));
    mysql> INSERT INTO my_decimal(d) VALUES(0.1);
    mysql> SELECT * FROM my_decimal;
    +---------+
    | d |
    +---------+
    | 0.10000 |
    +---------+
    mysql> SELECT * FROM my_decimal WHERE d = 0.1;
    +---------+
    | d |
    +---------+
    | 0.10000 |
    +---------+
    No approximation with xed point type
    

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82. Transmitting real
    numbers
    ini_set('precision', 17);
    $myJsonFromAPI = '{"name": "foo", "price": 29.99}';
    $myObject = json_decode($myJsonFromAPI, false);
    echo "Price:".$myObject->price."\n";
    Price:29.989999999999998
    Loss of data due to approximation
    Use strings to avoid approximation
    

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83. When oat are shining
    Non-exhaustive list
    

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84. Scienti c Calculations
    Scienti c Calculations
    

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85. Sensors
    Sensors
    

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86. Statistics
    Statistics
    

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87. Machine Learning
    Machine Learning
    

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88. When avoiding oat...
    ...and how.
    Non-exhaustive list
    

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89. Money, payment & billing
    $price = 49.99;
    $coupon = 20.25;
    $card = 29.74;
    1
    2
    3
    4
    echo "Price: $price. Using coupon $coupon.\n";
    5
    $remaining = $price - $coupon;
    6
    7
    echo "$remaining still to pay. Using card $card.\n";
    8
    $remaining = $remaining - $card;
    9
    10
    if ($remaining == 0) {
    11
    echo "Thank you for your payment!\n";
    12
    } else {
    13
    echo "Paiement not finished: $remaining to pay\n";
    14
    }
    15
    echo "Price: $price. Using coupon $coupon.\n";
    $remaining = $price - $coupon;
    $price = 49.99;
    1
    $coupon = 20.25;
    2
    $card = 29.74;
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    echo "$remaining still to pay. Using card $card.\n";
    8
    $remaining = $remaining - $card;
    9
    10
    if ($remaining == 0) {
    11
    echo "Thank you for your payment!\n";
    12
    } else {
    13
    echo "Paiement not finished: $remaining to pay\n";
    14
    }
    15
    echo "$remaining still to pay. Using card $card.\n";
    $remaining = $remaining - $card;
    $price = 49.99;
    1
    $coupon = 20.25;
    2
    $card = 29.74;
    3
    4
    echo "Price: $price. Using coupon $coupon.\n";
    5
    $remaining = $price - $coupon;
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10
    if ($remaining == 0) {
    11
    echo "Thank you for your payment!\n";
    12
    } else {
    13
    echo "Paiement not finished: $remaining to pay\n";
    14
    }
    15
    $price = 49.99;
    $coupon = 20.25;
    $card = 29.74;
    echo "Price: $price. Using coupon $coupon.\n";
    $remaining = $price - $coupon;
    echo "$remaining still to pay. Using card $card.\n";
    $remaining = $remaining - $card;
    if ($remaining == 0) {
    echo "Thank you for your payment!\n";
    } else {
    echo "Paiement not finished: $remaining to pay\n";
    }
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10
    11
    12
    13
    14
    15
    Price: 49.99. Using coupon 20.25.
    1
    29.74 still to pay. Using card 29.74.
    2
    Paiement not finished: 3.5527136788005E-15 to pay
    3
    Price: 49.99. Using coupon 20.25.
    29.74 still to pay. Using card 29.74.
    1
    2
    Paiement not finished: 3.5527136788005E-15 to pay
    3
    Price: 49.99. Using coupon 20.25.
    29.74 still to pay. Using card 29.74.
    Paiement not finished: 3.5527136788005E-15 to pay
    1
    2
    3
    

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90. Money, payment & billing
    ini_set('precision', 17); //Only change!
    $price = 49.99;
    $coupon = 20.25;
    $card = 29.74;
    echo "Price: $price. Using coupon $coupon.\n";
    $remaining = $price - $coupon;
    echo "$remaining still to pay. Using card $card.\n";
    $remaining = $remaining - $card;
    if ($remaining == 0) {
    echo "Thank you for your payment!\n";
    } else {
    echo "Paiement not finished: $remaining to pay\n";
    }
    Price: 49.990000000000002. Using coupon 20.25.
    29.740000000000002 still to pay. Using card 29.739999999999998.
    Paiement not finished: 3.5527136788005009E-15 to pay
    

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91. Using Floating Point Numbers with
    money:
    It seems to work...
    ... until it doesn't.
    

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92. Money is a discrete entity.
    No approximation in money!
    

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93. Use cents and integers
    $price = 4999;
    $coupon = 2025;
    $card = 2974;
    function f(int $amount): string {
    return substr($amount, 0, -2).'.'.substr($amount, -2);
    }
    echo "Price:".f($price).". Using coupon ".f($coupon).".\n";
    $remaining = $price - $coupon;
    echo f($remaining).' still to pay. Using card '.f($card)."\n";
    $remaining = $remaining - $card;
    if ($remaining == 0) {
    echo "Thank you for your payment!\n";
    } else {
    echo "Payement not finished.\nRemaining amount to pay:".f($remaining)."\n";
    }
    Price:49.99. Using coupon 20.25.
    29.74 still to pay. Using card 29.74
    Thank you for your payment!
    

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94. All amount in cents
    

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95. Other alternatives to
    Floating point numbers
    

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96. Strings
    ini_set('precision', 20);
    $myRealNumber = "0.1";
    echo $myRealNumber."\n";
    0.1
    Simple
    No computation
    No comparison
    

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97. BCMath
    Arbitrary Precision Mathematics
    bcscale(2);
    $sum = bcadd("0.1", "0.2"); // strings!!
    if (bccomp($sum, "0.3")) {
    echo "$sum is NOT EQUAL to 0.3\n";
    } else {
    echo "$sum is EQUAL to 0.3\n";
    }
    0.30 IS EQUAL to 0.3
    Computation
    Comparison
    Needs an
    extension
    

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98. php decimal
    Arbitrary-Precision Decimal Arithmetic For PHP 7
    use Decimal\Decimal;
    $op1 = new Decimal("0.1");
    $op2 = new Decimal("0.2");
    $sum = $op1->add($op2);
    if (!$sum->equals("0.3")) {
    echo "$sum is NOT EQUAL to 0.3\n";
    } else {
    echo "$sum is EQUAL to 0.3\n";
    }
    0.3 is EQUAL to 0.3
    Nice object
    interface
    Not easily
    available
    php-decimal.io
    

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99. Floating Point Numbers
    Fear them
    Respect them
    Love them
    Thank you!
    joind.in/talk/1d52e
    

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