Philip Warner <pjw@rhyme.com.au> writes:
> Given this, I have assumed that printf etc use these least significant bits
> to determine the 'correct' representation.
No. What float4-to-text really does is *discard* information, by
rounding off the printed result to only 7 digits (when there are
actually 7-and-change in there). This means values that are actually
distinct float4 values may get printed as the same thing:
regression=# select 1.234567 :: float4;
?column?
----------
1.23457
(1 row)
regression=# select 1.234568 :: float4;
?column?
----------
1.23457
(1 row)
regression=# select 1.234567 :: float4 = 1.234568 :: float4;
?column?
----------
f
(1 row)
regression=# select 1.234567 :: float4 - 1.234568 :: float4;
?column?
--------------
-9.53674e-07
(1 row)
I don't much care for this behavior (since it means dump and reload of
float columns is lossy), and I certainly won't hold still for
introducing it into other operations on floats.
regards, tom lane
