[Guido] > My best guess as to why 'F' is the same as 'f' is that somebody > (could've been me :-) thought, like several others in this thread, > that %f never prints an exponent. I agree that making it emit an 'E' > when an exponent is used is the right thing to do. Do it now!
The C standard doesn't allow for %f (or %F) to produce an exponent. That appears to be a Python innovation. People should try their examples under their native C compiler instead (best I can tell, the idea that %f/%F can produce an exponent came only from running Python examples, never from running C examples). For example, """ #include <stdio.h> int main() { printf("%f\n", 1e300); } """ Under the Cygwin gcc, that displays (the admittedly atrocious, but that's why people shouldn't use %f inappropriately to begin with ;-)): 100000000000000005250476025520442024870446900000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000.000000 As far as C is concerned, the only difference between %f and %F is: The F conversion specifier produces INF, INFINITY, or NAN instead of inf, infinity, or nan, respectively _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com