float computing algorithm and BCD operation

Now the operations. Suppose you only have the data type for signed integer. So you can use two integer variables to store the result of a floating point operation. Something like this:

int digits,point

digits = 123450
point = 3
(that is number 123.456)

A fuction for division (the sintax is incorrect. but that is the idea):

fuction divide (int numerator,denominator) {

const maxprecision = 10;
int digits,point,i;

for (i=0,i<maxprecision,i++) {

  digits = (numerator*10^i) / denominator;
   
  if (digits*denominator = numerator*10^i) {
    /* exact division, no more decimal places */
    break; /* or the correct statement to exit the for loop*/
  }
}
point = i;

return digits,point; /*that is incorrect, you must use some kind of structure/record to output the two values*/
}

Got it?

lets check for numerator = 1 and denominator = 4 (0.25)

i = 0

digits = (numerator*10^i) / denominator;
digits = (1*1) / 4 = 0

if (digits*denominator = numerator*10^i) {
if (0*4=1*1) - false, loop continues

i = 1

digits = (1*10) / 4 = 3 (or 2, i dont know if the language rounds 2.5 to 2 or 3)
if ( (3*4) = 1*10 ) false
in the other case where the language makes 2.5 => 2
if ( (2*4) = 1*10 ) false anyway
loop continues

i = 2

digits = (1*100) / 4 = 25
if (25*4) = 1*100 (true, loop stops)
digits = 25
point = i = 2

so the answer is digits*10^-point = 0.25

if we have too many decimal places, the loop will stop at maxprecision.

for sum/subtraction you must put both numbers with the same point value and then sum/subtract normally.

I will use the structure:
number.digits
number.point
I don't know how to define it in C. It is probably using a record or someting.

function sumsubtract (structure number1, number2) {

structure result;

if (number1.point > number2.point) {

  number2.digits = number2.digits*10^(number1.point-number2.point);
  number2.point = number1.point;

} elseif (number1.point < number2.point) {

  number1.digits = number1.digits*10^(number2.point-number1.point);
  number1.point = number2.point;

}

result.point = number1.point /*or number2.point, they should be the same by now*/

result.digits = number1.digits-number2.digits;

return result;

}

Now the test. We want to subtract 1.25 - 0.5.

number1.digits = 125
number1.point = 2
nubber2.digits = 5
number2.point = 1

function runs

number1.point > number2.point

  number2.digits = number2.digits*10^(number1.point-number2.point);
  number2.digits = 5 * 10^(2-1) = 50
  number2.point = number1.point
  number2.point = 2

result.point = 2
result.digits = 125-50 = 75

so the answer is 0.75

finally for multiplication. just multiply the digits and sum the point.

result.point = number1.point + number2.point
result.digits = number1.digits * number2.digits

for example, 6.2 * 0.5.

result.digits = 62 * 5 = 310
result.point = 1 + 1 = 2

the answer is 310*10^-2 = 3.10 = 3.1

now a function to remove trailing zeroes, like the one on the multiplication:

while ( (result.digits/10)*10 = result.digits ) {

  result.digits = result.digits/10;
  result.point = result.point - 1;

}

testing:

result.digits = 25000
result.point = 4
(number 2.5000 = 2.5)

loop 1

(result.digits/10)*10 = result.digits
(25000/10)*10 = 2500*10 = 25000 (true)
result.digits = 2500
result.point = 3

loop 2

(result.digits/10)*10 = result.digits
(2500/10)*10 = 250*10 = 2500 (true)
result.digits = 250
result.point = 2

loop 3

(result.digits/10)*10 = result.digits
(250/10)*10 = 25*10 = 250 (true)
result.digits = 25
result.point = 1

loop 3

(result.digits/10)*10 = result.digits
(25/10)*10 = 2*10 = 20 (false)
(25/10)*10 = 3*10 = 30 (false anyway if the language rounds up)

loop stops

return:
result.digits = 25
result.point = 1

sorry, the last loop should be loop 4. copy and paste should be smarter ;)

You can incorporate the number.point and number.digits into a single biginteger:

suppose you will only handle numbers bigger than 1*10^-99 (0 < point < 99):

biginteger = number.digits*100 + number.point;

the way back

number.digits = biginteger / 100;
number.point = biginteger - number.digits;

the number 1.25 would be stored as 12502 (125 02)

I may transplant these code to assembly finally. You know, the assembly may only has ADD/SUB instruction. So we'd better not use integer multiply or divide.
And if the integer data type is 4-bytes long, the max precision is only 10 digits. But the precision I need is far higher than 10 digits. So we can't depend on integer operations.

I have thought of float point variable like this:
sign    /* 1 byte */
point   /* 1 byte, power of 10 */
digits  /* 10 bytes, in BCD format */

Then I have 20-digits precision, and the range is 10^128.

But I don't know how to do BCD multiply and divide, and I also worry about the speed of BCD operation.
All operations in decimal system may save the time, I hope.

you can implement integer division/multiplication like this:

function multiply(int factor1,factor2) {

int i,result;

result = 0;

for (i=0;i<factor1;i++) {
  result = result + factor2;
}

return result;

}

function divide(int numerator,denominator) {

int i;

i = 0;

while (numerator >= denominator) {
i++;
numerator = numerator - denominator;
}

return i;

}

acerola,

The divide() will lose the remainder.
The algorithm is too slow.