I recently start to learn PHP.
<?php
echo (int) ( (0.1+0.7) * 10 ); // prints '7', why not '8' ?
?>
Please convince me of this type-conversion process.
From PHP.net
It is typical that simple decimal fractions like 0.1 or 0.7 cannot be converted into their internal binary counterparts without a small loss of precision. This can lead to confusing results: for example, floor((0.1+0.7)*10) will usually return 7 instead of the expected 8, since the internal representation will be something like 7.9.
This is due to the fact that it is impossible to express some fractions in decimal notation with a finite number of digits. For instance, 1/3 in decimal form becomes 0.3.
You're probably seeing a floating point rounding error, and when you int() it, it goes from being 7...9 to 7.
From http://php.net/manual/en/language.types.float.php
It is typical that simple decimal fractions like 0.1 or 0.7 cannot be converted into their internal binary counterparts without a small loss of precision. This can lead to confusing results: for example, floor((0.1+0.7)*10) will usually return 7 instead of the expected 8, since the internal representation will be something like 7.9.
I am not sure, but this is probably because the int cast is truncating.
.1 + .7 might result in .799999999999999999999999 and
multiplying this by 10 = 7.9999999999999999999
(int) truncates this to 7.
You are running into floating point inaccuracy.
0.1 + 0.7 is not exactly 0.8, but slightly less. The cast to int simply truncates the value and yields 7 as the result.
To get the correct result use rounding:
<?php
echo (int) round( (0.1+0.7) * 10 );
?>
As others have said, it's due to a loss of precision, as revealed by:
<?php
printf("%30.27f
", (0.1 + 0.7) );
printf("%d
", (int) (0.1 + 0.7) );
printf("%30.27f
", ( (0.1+0.7) * 10 ) );
printf("%d
", (int) ((0.1 + 0.7) * 10) );
?>
which outputs:
0.799999999999999933386618522
0
7.999999999999999111821580300
7