From: Dale Martenson <dale.martenson@...>
Date: 2006-11-18T08:38:15+09:00
Subject: Re: Is 2.0 Integer or Float?

Dale Martenson wrote:
> Paul Lutus wrote:
>> Dale Martenson wrote:
>> 
>>> Paul Lutus wrote:
>> You should know that many projects store integers in float variables in
>> cases where the float variable has more available bits of precision that
>> the platform's integer data type. Those who do this know there is no
>> downside -- the integer stored in the float variable won't start
>> misbehaving itself just because of its new, upscale quarters.

I agree that storing integers in floats is possible as long as you only 
use integer values for your computations and you do not exceed a 
mantissa's precision that everything will be wonderful.

If this is the world you wish to limit yourself to then:

def is_integer(f)
  f.remainder(1) == 0
end

would be adequate as a test to determine is a value stored in a float is 
an integer, but this will fail on many computed values that involve 
non-integer values even if the expected result should be an integer 
value.

I personally don't see a valid application in Ruby since Fixnum and 
Bignum handle precision well beyond that of Float.

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