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Technical Reference: Base Operating System and Extensions, Volume 1


fp_read_rnd or fp_swap_rnd Subroutine

Purpose

Read and set the IEEE floating-point rounding mode.

Library

Standard C Library (libc.a)

Syntax

#include <float.h>


fprnd_t fp_read_rnd()
fprnd_t fp_swap_rnd( RoundMode)
fprnd_t RoundMode;

Description

The fp_read_rnd subroutine returns the current rounding mode. The fp_swap_rnd subroutine changes the rounding mode to the RoundMode parameter and returns the value of the rounding mode before the change.

Floating-point rounding occurs when the infinitely precise result of a floating-point operation cannot be represented exactly in the destination floating-point format (such as double-precision format).

The IEEE Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic allows floating-point numbers to be rounded in four different ways: round toward zero, round to nearest, round toward +INF, and round toward -INF. Once a rounding mode is selected it affects all subsequent floating-point operations until another rounding mode is selected.

Note: The default floating-point rounding mode is round to nearest. All C main programs begin with the rounding mode set to round to nearest.

The encodings of the rounding modes are those defined in the ANSI C Standard. The float.h file contains definitions for the rounding modes. Below is the float.h definition, the ANSI C Standard value, and a description of each rounding mode.

float.h Definition ANSI Value Description
FP_RND_RZ 0 Round toward 0
FP_RND_RN 1 Round to nearest
FP_RND_RP 2 Round toward +INF
FP_RND_RM 3 Round toward -INF

The fp_swap_rnd subroutine can be used to swap rounding modes by saving the return value from fp_swap_rnd(RoundMode). This can be useful in functions that need to force a specific rounding mode for use during the function but wish to restore the caller's rounding mode on exit. Below is a code fragment that accomplishes this action:

save_mode = fp_swap_rnd (new_mode);
....desired code using new_mode
(void) fp_swap_rnd(save_mode); /*restore caller's mode*/

Parameters


RoundMode Specifies one of the following modes: FP_RND_RZ, FP_RND_RN, FP_RND_RP, or FP_RND_RM.

Implementation Specifics

These subroutines are part of Base Operating System (BOS) Runtime.

Related Information

The floor, ceil, nearest, trunc, rint, itrunc, uitrunc, fmod, or fabs (floor, floorl, ceil, ceill, nearest, trunc, rint, itrunc, uitrunc, fmod, fmodl, fabs, or fabsl Subroutine) subroutine, fp_any_enable, fp_is_enabled, fp_enable_all, fp_enable,fp_disable_all, or fp_disable (fp_any_enable, fp_is_enabled, fp_enable_all, fp_enable, fp_disable_all, or fp_disable Subroutine) subroutine, fp_clr_flag, fp_read_flag, fp_set_flag, or fp_swap_flag (fp_clr_flag, fp_set_flag, fp_read_flag, or fp_swap_flag Subroutine) subroutine.

Subroutines Overview in AIX 5L Version 5.1 General Programming Concepts: Writing and Debugging Programs.


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