I believe that even this limit is wrong. Consider sqrt(2), which is 2^(1/2).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?
2 has 1 digit, 1/2 has 2 digits, but the result is irrational, and therefor cannot be represented with a finit amount of digits.
I believe that there is no mathematically correct way (i.e. a way which guarantees a 100% correct result) to define pow(numeric, numeric) - at least in the general case.
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