Re: Another conversion question for Russ

• To: Ed Hartnett <ed@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Subject: Re: Another conversion question for Russ
• From: Russ Rew <russ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003 12:31:50 -0600

> Quincey Koziol <koziol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> 
> > Hi Russ,
> >     When an integer value is converted to a float, but the
> > floating-point value doesn't have enough precision to hold the
> > correct value, it gets rounded.  Is this an "overflow" from
> > netcdf-3's perspective?  It will be an "overflow" in the
> > implementation we are adding.
> > 
> >     Quincey
> 
> My understanding is that this is NOT an overflow for netcdf. Loss of
> precision is not an error. Only values that are too large to convert
> are range errors.
> 
> For example, I don't think netcdf will ever have a range problem
> converting ints to floats. Russ, am I completely wrong about that?

You're right, loss of precision is not an overflow.  Again, the
C/Fortran assignment model is followed, in which there is no error or
warning when trying to assign a float value to an int, merely
truncation.

--Russ

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