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Software Engineering vocabulary · Programming Concepts

Floating-point number

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

nounCommon term

In software engineering, floating-point number means: A number stored using a finite-precision representation with a significand and an exponent, allowing a wide range of magnitudes.

In Turkish: kayan noktalı sayı

How it is used

Used in numerical programming, graphics and measurements. Many decimal fractions cannot be represented exactly, so rounding matters.

Example sentences

  1. The calculation stores each measurement as a floating-point number.

  2. This floating-point number is an approximation of the decimal value we entered.

Common collocations

  • represent a floating-point number
  • compare floating-point numbers
  • floating-point number precision
  • integerA numeric data type representing whole numbers without a fractional part, with a supported range that depends on its representation.
  • data typeThe kind of value a column can hold, such as whole numbers, text, dates or true/false values. It controls what can be stored and how much space it takes.
  • precisionOf all the cases a model marked as positive, the share that really were positive. High precision means few false alarms.

More terms: Programming Concepts

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