Significant digits in a float?

[Grant Edwards]

On 2014-04-29, Roy Smith <roy at panix.com> wrote:

>> What reason do you have to think that something recorded to 14 
>> decimal places was only intended to have been recorded to 4?
>
> Because I understand the physical measurement these numbers represent.  
> Sometimes, Steve, you have to assume that when somebody asks a question, 
> they actually have asked the question then intended to ask.

Sometimes.  But the smart money bets against it -- especially when
people are asking about floating point. :)

It doesn't sound to me like you have enough information to reliably do
what you want to do, but parsing the string representation is probably
the best way to go.

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