[numbers] Fixed point vs Floating point number

I just can't understand fixed point and floating point numbers due to hard to read definitions about them all over Google. But none that I have read provide a simple enough explanation of what they really are. Can I get a plain definition with example?

Take the number 123.456789

• As an integer, this number would be 123
• As a fixed point (2), this number would be 123.46 (Assuming you rounded it up)
• As a floating point, this number would be 123.456789

Floating point lets you represent most every number with a great deal of precision. Fixed is less precise, but simpler for the computer..

The term ‘fixed point’ refers to the corresponding manner in which numbers are represented, with a fixed number of digits after, and sometimes before, the decimal point. With floating-point representation, the placement of the decimal point can ‘float’ relative to the significant digits of the number. For example, a fixed-point representation with a uniform decimal point placement convention can represent the numbers 123.45, 1234.56, 12345.67, etc, whereas a floating-point representation could in addition represent 1.234567, 123456.7, 0.00001234567, 1234567000000000, etc.

From my understanding, fixed-point arithmetic is done using integers. where the decimal part is stored in a fixed amount of bits, or the number is multiplied by how many digits of decimal precision is needed.

For example, If the number 12.34 needs to be stored and we only need two digits of precision after the decimal point, the number is multiplied by 100 to get 1234. When performing math on this number, we'd use this rule set. Adding 5620 or 56.20 to this number would yield 6854 in data or 68.54.

If we want to calculate the decimal part of a fixed-point number, we use the modulo (%) operand.

12.34 (pseudocode):

v1 = 1234 / 100 // get the whole number
v2 = 1234 % 100 // get the decimal number (100ths of a whole).
print v1 + "." + v2 // "12.34"

Floating point numbers are a completely different story in programming. The current standard for floating point numbers use something like 23 bits for the data of the number, 8 bits for the exponent, and 1 but for sign. See this Wikipedia link for more information on this.

A fixed point number just means that there are a fixed number of digits after the decimal point. A floating point number allows for a varying number of digits after the decimal point.

For example, if you have a way of storing numbers that requires exactly four digits after the decimal point, then it is fixed point. Without that restriction it is floating point.

Often, when fixed point is used, the programmer actually uses an integer and then makes the assumption that some of the digits are beyond the decimal point. For example, I might want to keep two digits of precision, so a value of 100 means actually means 1.00, 101 means 1.01, 12345 means 123.45, etc.

Floating point numbers are more general purpose because they can represent very small or very large numbers in the same way, but there is a small penalty in having to have extra storage for where the decimal place goes.

A fixed point number has a specific number of bits (or digits) reserved for the integer part (the part to the left of the decimal point) and a specific number of bits reserved for the fractional part (the part to the right of the decimal point). No matter how large or small your number is, it will always use the same number of bits for each portion. For example, if your fixed point format was in decimal IIIII.FFFFF then the largest number you could represent would be 99999.99999 and the smallest non-zero number would be 00000.00001. Every bit of code that processes such numbers has to have built-in knowledge of where the decimal point is.

A floating point number does not reserve a specific number of bits for the integer part or the fractional part. Instead it reserves a certain number of bits for the number (called the mantissa or significand) and a certain number of bits to say where within that number the decimal place sits (called the exponent). So a floating point number that took up 10 digits with 2 digits reserved for the exponent might represent a largest value of 9.9999999e+50 and a smallest non-zero value of 0.0000001e-49.