[Numpy-discussion] Displaying floats with Python

[Marc Poinot]

I'm not sure this is a problem, but I'm looking
for a solution for this and I wonder if one
could give a piece of advice:

I have a C extension using doubles and floats.
I return a float casted to double to Python, from my extension,
and when I display it I have some extra numbers
at the end of the "correct" number.
In the extension, dgv is a float (in this exemple dgv=0.1).

  PyTuple_SET_ITEM(tp0, i, PyFloat_FromDouble((double)dgv));

I print it in Python:

  print tuple[0]

Which produces:

0.10000000149

I get to much numbers, because the print should not try to get
more then the 4 bytes float. It looks that the floatobject.c
files is setting a number precision for printing, which is
forced to 12. (#define PREC_STR 12)
This work if you use a "double", but not a
"double" casted from a "float". This problem occurs either
on SGI and DEC.

With stdio:

    printf("%.g\n",  (float) dgv);
    printf("%.g\n",  (double)dgv);
    printf("%.12g\n",(float) dgv);
    printf("%.12g\n",(double)dgv);

produces (this is a "CORRECT" behavior for printf, we're printing
too much digits):

0.1
0.1
0.10000000149
0.10000000149


Any idea ? How can I say to Python to forget the precision,
or set it as global.

Marcvs [alias Yes I could only compute with integers, but... ]