// Andrew Taylor - andrewt@unsw.edu.au // 10/06/2020 // Print the underlying representation of a float // The float can be supplied as a decimal or a bit-string /* $ dcc explain_float_representation.c -o explain_float_representation $ ./explain_float_representation 0.15625 is represented in IEEE-754 single-precision by these bits: 00111110001000000000000000000000 sign | exponent | fraction 0 | 01111100 | 01000000000000000000000 sign bit = 0 sign = + raw exponent = 01111100 binary = 124 decimal actual exponent = 124 - exponent_bias = 124 - 127 = -3 number = +1.01000000000000000000000 binary * 2**-3 = 1.25 decimal * 2**-3 = 1.25 * 0.125 = 0.15625 $ ./explain_float_representation -0.125 -0.125 is represented as a float (IEEE-754 single-precision) by these bits: 10111110000000000000000000000000 sign | exponent | fraction 1 | 01111100 | 00000000000000000000000 sign bit = 1 sign = - raw exponent = 01111100 binary = 124 decimal actual exponent = 124 - exponent_bias = 124 - 127 = -3 number = -1.00000000000000000000000 binary * 2**-3 = -1 decimal * 2**-3 = -1 * 0.125 = -0.125 $ ./explain_float_representation 150.75 150.75 is represented in IEEE-754 single-precision by these bits: 01000011000101101100000000000000 sign | exponent | fraction 0 | 10000110 | 00101101100000000000000 sign bit = 0 sign = + raw exponent = 10000110 binary = 134 decimal actual exponent = 134 - exponent_bias = 134 - 127 = 7 number = +1.00101101100000000000000 binary * 2**7 = 1.17773 decimal * 2**7 = 1.17773 * 128 = 150.75 $ ./explain_float_representation -96.125 -96.125 is represented in IEEE-754 single-precision by these bits: 11000010110000000100000000000000 sign | exponent | fraction 1 | 10000101 | 10000000100000000000000 sign bit = 1 sign = - raw exponent = 10000101 binary = 133 decimal actual exponent = 133 - exponent_bias = 133 - 127 = 6 number = -1.10000000100000000000000 binary * 2**6 = -1.50195 decimal * 2**6 = -1.50195 * 64 = -96.125 $ ./explain_float_representation inf inf is represented in IEEE-754 single-precision by these bits: 01111111100000000000000000000000 sign | exponent | fraction 0 | 11111111 | 00000000000000000000000 sign bit = 0 sign = + raw exponent = 11111111 binary = 255 decimal number = +inf $ ./explain_float_representation 00111101110011001100110011001101 sign bit = 0 sign = + raw exponent = 01111011 binary = 123 decimal actual exponent = 123 - exponent_bias = 123 - 127 = -4 number = +1.10011001100110011001101 binary * 2**-4 = 1.6 decimal * 2**-4 = 1.6 * 0.0625 = 0.1 $ ./explain_float_representation 01111111110000000000000000000000 sign bit = 0 sign = + raw exponent = 11111111 binary = 255 decimal number = NaN $ ```*/ #include #include #include #include #include #include void display_float(char *argument); uint32_t get_float_bits(float f); void print_float_bits(uint32_t bits); void print_bit_range(uint32_t value, int high, int low); void print_float_details(uint32_t bits); uint32_t extract_bit_range(uint32_t value, int high, int low); uint32_t convert_bitstring_to_uint32(char *bit_string); int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { for (int arg = 1; arg < argc; arg++) { display_float(argv[arg]); } return 0; } // Define the constants used in representation of a float in IEEE 754 single-precision // https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-precision_floating-point_format // explains format #define N_BITS 32 #define SIGN_BIT 31 #define EXPONENT_HIGH_BIT 30 #define EXPONENT_LOW_BIT 23 #define FRACTION_HIGH_BIT 22 #define FRACTION_LOW_BIT 0 #define EXPONENT_OFFSET 127 #define EXPONENT_INF_NAN 255 void display_float(char *argument) { uint32_t bits; // is this argument a bit string or a float? if (strlen(argument) > N_BITS - 4 && strspn(argument, "01") == N_BITS) { bits = convert_bitstring_to_uint32(argument); } else { float number = strtof(argument, NULL); bits = get_float_bits(number); printf("\n%s is represented as IEEE-754 single-precision by these bits:\n\n", argument); print_float_bits(bits); } print_float_details(bits); } void print_float_details(uint32_t bits) { uint32_t sign_bit = extract_bit_range(bits, SIGN_BIT, SIGN_BIT); uint32_t fraction_bits = extract_bit_range(bits, FRACTION_HIGH_BIT, FRACTION_LOW_BIT); uint32_t exponent_bits = extract_bit_range(bits, EXPONENT_HIGH_BIT, EXPONENT_LOW_BIT); int sign_char, sign_value; if (sign_bit == 1) { sign_char = '-'; sign_value = -1; } else { sign_char = '+'; sign_value = 1; } int exponent = exponent_bits - EXPONENT_OFFSET; printf("sign bit = %d\n", sign_bit); printf("sign = %c\n\n", sign_char); printf("raw exponent = "); print_bit_range(bits, EXPONENT_HIGH_BIT, EXPONENT_LOW_BIT); printf(" binary\n"); printf(" = %d decimal\n", exponent_bits); int implicit_bit = 1; // handle special cases of +infinity, -infinity // and Not a Number (NaN) if (exponent_bits == EXPONENT_INF_NAN) { if (fraction_bits == 0) { printf("number = %cinf\n\n", sign_char); } else { // https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NaN printf("number = NaN\n\n"); } return; } if (exponent_bits == 0) { // if the exponent_bits are zero its a special case // called a denormal number // https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denormal_number implicit_bit = 0; exponent++; } printf("actual exponent = %d - exponent_bias\n", exponent_bits); printf(" = %d - %d\n", exponent_bits, EXPONENT_OFFSET); printf(" = %d\n\n", exponent); printf("number = %c%d.", sign_char, implicit_bit); print_bit_range(bits, FRACTION_HIGH_BIT, FRACTION_LOW_BIT); printf(" binary * 2**%d\n", exponent); int fraction_size = FRACTION_HIGH_BIT - FRACTION_LOW_BIT + 1; double fraction_max = ((uint32_t)1) << fraction_size; double fraction = implicit_bit + fraction_bits / fraction_max; fraction *= sign_value; printf(" = %g decimal * 2**%d\n", fraction, exponent); printf(" = %g * %g\n", fraction, exp2(exponent)); printf(" = %g\n\n", fraction * exp2(exponent)); } union overlay_float { float f; uint32_t u; }; // return the raw bits of a float uint32_t get_float_bits(float f) { union overlay_float overlay; overlay.f = f; return overlay.u; } // print out the bits of a float void print_float_bits(uint32_t bits) { print_bit_range(bits, 8 * sizeof bits - 1, 0); printf("\n\n"); printf("sign | exponent | fraction\n"); printf(" "); print_bit_range(bits, SIGN_BIT, SIGN_BIT); printf(" | "); print_bit_range(bits, EXPONENT_HIGH_BIT, EXPONENT_LOW_BIT); printf(" | "); print_bit_range(bits, FRACTION_HIGH_BIT, FRACTION_LOW_BIT); printf("\n\n"); } // print the binary representation of a value void print_bit_range(uint32_t value, int high, int low) { for (int i = high; i >= low; i--) { int bit = extract_bit_range(value, i, i); printf("%d", bit); } } // extract a range of bits from a value uint32_t extract_bit_range(uint32_t value, int high, int low) { uint32_t mask = (((uint32_t)1) << (high - low + 1)) - 1; return (value >> low) & mask; } // given a string of 1s and 0s return the correspong uint32_t uint32_t convert_bitstring_to_uint32(char *bit_string) { uint32_t bits = 0; for (int i = 0; i < N_BITS && bit_string[i] != '\0'; i++) { int ascii_char = bit_string[N_BITS - 1 - i]; uint32_t bit = ascii_char != '0'; bits = bits | (bit << i); } return bits; }