Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!batcomputer!munnari.oz.au!goanna!ok
From: ok@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au (Richard A. O'Keefe)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Implicit decimal points in floating-point reads
Keywords: scanf,floating point,decimal formats
Message-ID: <5889@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au>
Date: 22 May 91 05:21:15 GMT
References: <5366@dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov> <1991May21.200003.13471@wpi.WPI.EDU>
Organization: Comp Sci, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia
Lines: 20

In article <1991May21.200003.13471@wpi.WPI.EDU>, fenn@wpi.WPI.EDU (Brian Fennell) writes:
> >main()
> >{  char a1[10] = "26208";
> >   float x = 0.0;
> >   int ifld = 0;
> >   ifld = sscanf(a1, "%5f", &x); 
> 
>     x /= 1000.;	/* simple, to the point, no fancy fix routines needed */

Simple, to the point, and WRONG.  The thing about the Fortran format which
the original poster wanted to emulate is that the decimal point is placed
implicitly where the format specification says *UNLESS* there is an
explicit decimal point in the input field.

	if (!strchr(a1, '.')) x /= 1.0e5;

comes closer.  Of course, I don't need to explain to a sophisticated
audience why this loses accuracy compared with bending the string, do I?
-- 
There is no such thing as a balanced ecology; ecosystems are chaotic.