reading float from file

Trouble reading float variables.
I tried reading some float variables from a file. This is what happened.
Input.(input file).

Code:

Hydrogen	H	G	1	1.008
Helium		He	G	2	4.0
Lithium		Li	S	3	6.94
Beryllium	Be	S	4	9.01
Boron		B	S	5	10.8
Carbon		C	S	6	12.0
Nitrogen	N	G	7	14.0
Oxygen		O	G	8	16.0
Fluorine	F	G	9	19.0
Neon		Ne	G	10	20.2
Sodium		Na	S	11	23.0
Magnesium	Mg	S	12	24.30
Aluminium	Al	S	13	27.0

But output.(both screen and output file).

Code:

       Hydrogen		H	1	1.008	G
         Helium		He	2	4	G
        Lithium		Li	3	6.94	S
      Beryllium		Be	4	9.01	S
          Boron		B	5	10.8	S	//works ok
         Carbon		C	6	12	S
       Nitrogen		N	7	14	G
         Oxygen		O	8	16	G
       Fluorine		F	9	19	G
           Neon		Ne	10	20.200001	G //decimals.
         Sodium		Na	11	23	S
      Magnesium		Mg	12	24.299999	S //decimals
      Aluminium		Al	13	27	S

My doubt...
Is there any way to avoid this.?
I even tried editing the file as:

Code:

Neon		Ne	G	10	20.20
and
Neon		Ne	G	10	20.20000000000

here's the part reading the file...

Code:

Element table[20]; class with details of an element...
int n=0;
char na[25], sy[3], st='\0';	//name symbol and state of element...
unsigned int z=0;
float m=0.0;
while(!file.eof()){
	file>>na>>sy>>st>>z>>m;
		if(file.good()){
		table[n].set(na, sy, st, z, m);	//tested - OK
		n++;
		}
	}
cout<<"There are currently "<<n<<" entries in the input file...\n\n";

try using setprecision() from <iomanip>

or you could mulitply by 100, truncate to an int, and divide by 100 (but that still leaves the chance of that happening)

or you could try using doubles.

>float m=0.0;
Doubles will give you more precise values:
double m=0.0;

But floating point representation can't store every number exactly, since there's an infinite number of values to represent.

a side note:

my guess is your getting some werid output
at the end of the file to, or dealing with it in your
table, its comming from using .eof()

>float m=0.0;
Doubles will give you more precise values:
double m=0.0;

Thanks 'swoopy'...
Double worked...
I didn't know that 'float' variables had such a problem.

Read my link in this thread - exact conversion of floating point to string

Thanks for the document.
but It'll take years for me to read through it.(literally!).

Yeah, but you should soon learn to not trust almost everything about floating point as being absolute truth.
Always understand the approximate nature of them and program accordingly.

while(!eof) is incorrrect since eof is signaled after the final read. The correct idiom is while(read_successful).

while(read_successful).

I Never read that anywhere before?
do you mean 'read_successful'is,
while(cin.get(character))?

yes.