wts difference between flaot and int?

i writen the program for printing the number in binary format

Code:

---

#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{
float number;
printf("enter the value of number\n");
scanf("%f",&number);
printf("the value of number in binary format is : ");
do
{
if(number & 01)
{
printf("1");
}
else
{
printf("0");
}
number>>=1;
}while(number !=0);
printf("\n");
return 0;
}

---

if i change the above program int to float or double or longdouble , i getting the error as

4.c:10: error: invalid operands to binary &
4.c:18: error: invalid operands to binary >>


any one let me know why i getting this error while i changed from int to float?

Floats are real numbers, they have a decimal point whereas ints are pure integers with no decimal point. '&' and '>>' are bitwise operators that require int, char, short or long as their arguments, that's why you're getting error when you change the argumenst to float.

why i cnat bit manuplate the float numbers ? wts reason behind this?

First result on Google: Floating point - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BEN10

Floats are real numbers,

---

Yes, but be aware they are not at all the same as what we normally consider decimal numbers to be. Exact decimal numbers have fixed precision; floating point precision is slightly different, and because it is represented with bits, only values that can be created by dividing one by two are perfectly represented, (eg, 0.5, 0.25, 0.125, 0.0625) or a multiple of such (0.75, etc). Notice that DOES NOT include 0.1!

For an illustration, compile and run this:

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
        float i;
        for (i=0.0f; i<20; i+=0.1f) {
                printf("%f\n",i);
        }
        return 0;
}

---

The fact that "0.1" is not precise as a floating point number is clear in the output:

2.600000
2.700000
2.799999
2.899999


hmmm, what happened there?

Unfortunately, there are is no standard datatype for fixed precision numbers (such as 0.1) in C.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by crocker

any one let me know why i getting this error while i changed from int to float?

---

Because bitwise arithmetic on a float makes about as much sense as "How long is purple?"

No, purple is a colour.

I think I would argue that purple is the color of a specific light wavelength. We recognize colors with our eyes, which process photonic information. Without light, there's no purple.

hi cpeople,

i didt getting these colours for bit manuplations. any one can suggest me for material to understand the relation of bit manuplations with those colours(purple)?

iMalc is basically saying that you cannot (directly) use bitwise manipulation on floating point variables. You can ignore the part of about purple if you do not understand the analogy and subsequent off-topic discussion.

The point was that direct bitwise maths such as using the &-operator on a float does not make sense.
There are certainly ways to print out the significant digits of a float in binary, and show the decimal place in the right position, but the code for that is ever so more complex than what you are using.

I found a link where it has been discussed.
bitwise on floats

Shifting an integer left multiplies it by powers of 2. Shifting a float doesn't. It gives you, for all intents and purposes, garbage. So, sure, you could do that with casts, but why would you want to do it? That's probably the reason why C doesn't define the operator for floats - it doesn't make much sense.