summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/lib/libc/stdlib/ecvt.3
blob: f478f8e4b04a156772f512d2d6f8d9cdb197e813 (plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
.\" $OpenBSD: ecvt.3,v 1.13 2019/01/25 00:19:25 millert Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2002 Todd C. Miller <millert@openbsd.org>
.\"
.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
.\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
.\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
.\"
.\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
.\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
.\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
.\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
.\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
.\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
.\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
.\"
.\" Sponsored in part by the Defense Advanced Research Projects
.\" Agency (DARPA) and Air Force Research Laboratory, Air Force
.\" Materiel Command, USAF, under agreement number F39502-99-1-0512.
.\"
.Dd $Mdocdate: January 25 2019 $
.Dt ECVT 3
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm ecvt ,
.Nm fcvt ,
.Nm gcvt
.Nd convert double to ASCII string
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.In stdlib.h
.Ft char *
.Fn ecvt "double value" "int ndigit" "int *decpt" "int *sign"
.Ft char *
.Fn fcvt "double value" "int ndigit" "int *decpt" "int *sign"
.Ft char *
.Fn gcvt "double value" "int ndigit" "char *buf"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Bf -symbolic
These functions are provided for compatibility with legacy code.
New code should use the
.Xr snprintf 3
function for improved safety and portability.
.Ef
.Pp
The
.Fn ecvt ,
.Fn fcvt
and
.Fn gcvt
functions convert the double precision floating-point number
.Fa value
to a NUL-terminated
.Tn ASCII
string.
.Pp
The
.Fn ecvt
function converts
.Fa value
to a NUL-terminated string of exactly
.Fa ndigit
digits and returns a pointer to that string.
The result is padded with zeroes from left to right as needed.
There are no leading zeroes unless
.Fa value
itself is 0.
The least significant digit is rounded in an implementation-dependent manner.
The position of the decimal point relative to the beginning of the string
is stored in
.Fa decpt .
A negative value indicates that the decimal point is located
to the left of the returned digits (this occurs when there is no
whole number component to
.Fa value ) .
If
.Fa value
is zero, it is unspecified whether the integer pointed to by
.Fa decpt
will be 0 or 1.
The decimal point itself is not included in the returned string.
If the sign of the result is negative, the integer pointed to by
.Fa sign
is non-zero; otherwise, it is 0.
.Pp
If the converted value is out of range or is not representable,
the contents of the returned string are unspecified.
.Pp
The
.Fn fcvt
function is identical to
.Fn ecvt
with the exception that
.Fa ndigit
specifies the number of digits after the decimal point (zero-padded as
needed).
.Pp
The
.Fn gcvt
function converts
.Fa value
to a NUL-terminated string similar to the %g
.Xr printf 3
format specifier and stores the result in
.Fa buf .
It produces
.Fa ndigit
significant digits similar to the %f
.Xr printf 3
format specifier where possible.
If
.Fa ndigit
does allow sufficient precision, the result is stored in
exponential notation similar to the %e
.Xr printf 3
format specifier.
If
.Fa value
is less than zero,
.Fa buf
will be prefixed with a minus sign.
A decimal point is included in the returned string if
.Fa value
is not a whole number.
Unlike the
.Fn ecvt
and
.Fn fcvt
functions,
.Fa buf
is not zero-padded.
.Sh RETURN VALUES
The
.Fn ecvt ,
.Fn fcvt
and
.Fn gcvt
functions return a NUL-terminated string representation of
.Fa value .
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr printf 3 ,
.Xr strtod 3
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Fn ecvt ,
.Fn fcvt
and
.Fn gcvt
functions conform to
.St -p1003.1-2001 ;
as of
.St -p1003.1-2008
they are no longer a part of the standard.
.Sh CAVEATS
The
.Fn ecvt
and
.Fn fcvt
functions return a pointer to internal storage space that will be
overwritten by subsequent calls to either function.
.Pp
The maximum possible precision of the return value is limited by the
precision of a double and may not be the same on all architectures.
.Pp
The
.Xr snprintf 3
function is preferred over these functions for new code.