this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2023
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Programmer Humor

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Java (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by alphacyberranger@lemmy.world to c/programmer_humor@programming.dev
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[–] karlthemailman@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So why not return a long or whatever the 64 bit int equivalent is?

[–] whats_a_refoogee@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago

To avoid a type conversion that might not be expected. Integer math in Java differs from floating point math.

Math.floor(10.6) / Math.floor(4.6) = 2.5 (double)

If floor returned a long, then

Math.floor(10.6) / Math.floor(4.6) = 2 (long)

If your entire code section is working with doubles, you might not like finding Math.floor() unexpectedly creating a condition for integer division and messing up your calculation. (Have fun debugging this if you're not actively aware of this behavior).

[–] korstmos@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

Because even a long (64-bit int) is too small :)
A long can hold 2^64-1 = 1.84E19
A double can hold 1.79E308

Double does some black magic with an exponent, and can hold absolutely massive numbers!

Double also has some situations that it defines as "infinity", a concept that does not exist in long as far as I know (?)