Floating-point

Updated: 05/16/2020 by Computer Hope
Floating-point number

In programming, a floating-point or float is a variable type that is used to store floating-point number values. A floating-point number is one where the position of the decimal point can "float" rather than being in a fixed position within a number. Examples of floating-point numbers are 1.23, 87.425, and 9039454.2. Different programming languages or systems may have different size limits or ways of defining floating-point numbers. Refer to the programming language documentation for details.

Tip

You can convert floating-point numbers to binary and hexadecimal using the IEEE-754 converter.

Computer abbreviations, Data type, Float, Floating-point notation, FLOPS, FPU, Programming terms, Whole number