]> caml 3.06+1: # let f = 1. /. 86400.;; val f : float = 1.15740740741e-05 # let s = string_of_float f;; val s : string = "1.15740740741e-05" # let f1 = float_of_string s;; val f1 : float = 1.15740740741e-05 # f1 = f;; - : bool = false # f1 -. f;; - : float = 2.59259844496e-17 This situation may be understandable, but is unfortunate. Disclaimer: I'm not a specialist of the IEEE float format. Do I have at hand, at least on an architecture supporting the IEEE format, a function that pretty-prints any valid float value (by valid I mean that I exclude the "special" values like NaN, infinity, etc.) so that float_of_string applied to the resulting string returns my initial value, or, at least, a value that, if substracted from my initial one, returns zero ? Background: In fact, my question goes a little bit further, as it concerns indeed the parsing of floats in the caml compiler (that uses internally float_of_string if I'm correct). Suppose you calculate somewhere (with an caml program, say) a float constant (such a calculation may last for hours!), and you want after obtaining the result to *generate* a caml source using this calculated value. You will probably generate something like let my_const = <a float text representation> But my example shows that you are loosing precision and accuracy if you just use string_of_float. Of course the goal is to incorporate this value in a caml source, not to read it in binary form from a file (that would be easy!). Do anybody know a solution to my problem ? Jean-Marc Eber ------------------- To unsubscribe, mail caml-list-request@inria.fr Archives: http://caml.inria.fr Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs FAQ: http://caml.inria.fr/FAQ/ Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners