Decimal Precision
29 August 2012
While reading the answers to Nathan Smith’s JavaScript Quiz,
I was struck by the number of assumptions made around decimal precision. In two places, the author states “you need to
multiply values by 10” when in actuality, you need to multiply values by the precision’s power of ten.
That lead me to write this bit of code to illustrate how you might handle high precision numbers (and of varying precision) without using a separate library.
function getPrecision(num) {
var split = (num + "").split(/([\.e\-]{1,2})/);
var i, len, token, next, nextNum, precision;
for (precision = 0, i = 1, len = split.length; i < len; i += 1) {
token = split[i];
next = split[i + 1];
nextNum = +next;
if (token === ".") {
precision += next.length;
} else if (token === "e-") {
precision += i > 1 ? nextNum + 1 : nextNum;
break;
}
}
return precision;
}
function getMaxPrecision(arr) {
var i, len, precision, max;
for (max = 0, i = 0, len = arr.length; i < len; i += 1) {
precision = getPrecision(arr[i]);
max = (precision > max) ? precision : max;
}
return max;
}
function sumArgs() {
var args = Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments);
var max = getMaxPrecision(args);
var pow = Math.pow(10, max);
var i, len, sum, arg;
for (sum = 0, i = 0, len = args.length; i < len; i += 1) {
arg = args[i];
sum += isNaN(arg) ? 0 : (arg * pow);
}
return sum / pow;
}
console.assert(getPrecision(1) === 0); //no decimal or e-
console.assert(getPrecision(1.1234567890) === 9); //zeros are dropped, just decimal
console.assert(getPrecision(1.1234567890123456) === 16); //longest without rounding
console.assert(getPrecision(0.1) === 1);
console.assert(getPrecision(0.12345678901234567) === 17); //longest without rounding
console.assert(getPrecision(0.0000000001) === 10); //no decimal, just e-
console.assert(getPrecision(0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000123456789012345678) === 71);
console.assert(sumArgs(0.00002, 0.00001, 0.1, 0.02) === 0.12003);
console.assert(getPrecision(Math.min()) === 0); //Infinity
console.assert(getPrecision(1e-324) === 0);
console.assert(getPrecision(1e-323) === 323);EDIT: My use of Math.pow made me curious if there was a faster way to build a big number, see the tests: http://jsperf.com/make-a-big-number/2