Chapter 16 Fractional Numbers
So far in this book we have used only integers for numerical values. In this chapter you will see two methods for storing fractional values:
- Fixed Point
The programmer keeps track of the location of the binary point within the bits that are allocated for storing the number. The binary point is equivalent to the decimal point. In particular, it separates the integral and fractional parts.
- Floating Point
The number is essentially stored in scientific format, with both the significand (or mantissa ) and exponent stored.