At CONNX, we just do 100 digits using qfloat (about 104 actually). Internally, all math is done using this type. Then we convert to the smaller types [or character types] as requested. I don't think that there is any business need for more than that. A package like Maple might need to worry about it, or a theoretical mathematician looking for patterns in digits or something like that. But you can't please everybody. > -----Original Message----- > From: pgsql-general-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:pgsql-general- > owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Martijn van Oosterhout > Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2005 2:48 PM > To: Dann Corbit > Cc: Alvaro Herrera; John Burger; pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: Re: numeric precision when raising one numeric to > another. > > On Thu, May 19, 2005 at 02:25:58PM -0700, Dann Corbit wrote: > > Hmmm.... > > I underestimated. > > > > pow(99999.99999,99999.99999) = > > Yeah, a number with x digits raised to the power with something y digits > long could have a length approximating: > > x * (10^y) digits > > So two numbers both 4 digits long can have a result of upto 40,000 > digits. You're only going to be able to them represent exactly for > cases where y is small and integer. > > What's a meaningful limit? Do we simply say, you get upto 100 digits > and that's it? Or an extra parameter so you can specify directly? > -- > Martijn van Oosterhout <kleptog@xxxxxxxxx> http://svana.org/kleptog/ > > Patent. n. Genius is 5% inspiration and 95% perspiration. A patent is a > > tool for doing 5% of the work and then sitting around waiting for > someone > > else to do the other 95% so you can sue them. ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 3: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate subscribe-nomail command to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx so that your message can get through to the mailing list cleanly
