比较两个双精度浮点数或两个浮点数最有效的方法是什么?

简单地这样做是不正确的:

bool CompareDoubles1 (double A, double B)
{
   return A == B;
}

比如:

bool CompareDoubles2 (double A, double B) 
{
   diff = A - B;
   return (diff < EPSILON) && (-diff < EPSILON);
}

似乎是浪费加工。

有人知道更聪明的浮点比较器吗?


当前回答

I found that the Google C++ Testing Framework contains a nice cross-platform template-based implementation of AlmostEqual2sComplement which works on both doubles and floats. Given that it is released under the BSD license, using it in your own code should be no problem, as long as you retain the license. I extracted the below code from http://code.google.com/p/googletest/source/browse/trunk/include/gtest/internal/gtest-internal.h https://github.com/google/googletest/blob/master/googletest/include/gtest/internal/gtest-internal.h and added the license on top.

一定要将GTEST_OS_WINDOWS定义为某个值(或者将使用它的代码更改为适合您的代码库的代码-毕竟它是BSD许可的)。

使用的例子:

double left  = // something
double right = // something
const FloatingPoint<double> lhs(left), rhs(right);

if (lhs.AlmostEquals(rhs)) {
  //they're equal!
}

代码如下:

// Copyright 2005, Google Inc.
// All rights reserved.
//
// Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
// modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are
// met:
//
//     * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
// notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
//     * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above
// copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer
// in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the
// distribution.
//     * Neither the name of Google Inc. nor the names of its
// contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from
// this software without specific prior written permission.
//
// THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
// "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
// LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR
// A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT
// OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
// SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT
// LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
// DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
// THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
// (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
// OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
//
// Authors: wan@google.com (Zhanyong Wan), eefacm@gmail.com (Sean Mcafee)
//
// The Google C++ Testing Framework (Google Test)


// This template class serves as a compile-time function from size to
// type.  It maps a size in bytes to a primitive type with that
// size. e.g.
//
//   TypeWithSize<4>::UInt
//
// is typedef-ed to be unsigned int (unsigned integer made up of 4
// bytes).
//
// Such functionality should belong to STL, but I cannot find it
// there.
//
// Google Test uses this class in the implementation of floating-point
// comparison.
//
// For now it only handles UInt (unsigned int) as that's all Google Test
// needs.  Other types can be easily added in the future if need
// arises.
template <size_t size>
class TypeWithSize {
 public:
  // This prevents the user from using TypeWithSize<N> with incorrect
  // values of N.
  typedef void UInt;
};

// The specialization for size 4.
template <>
class TypeWithSize<4> {
 public:
  // unsigned int has size 4 in both gcc and MSVC.
  //
  // As base/basictypes.h doesn't compile on Windows, we cannot use
  // uint32, uint64, and etc here.
  typedef int Int;
  typedef unsigned int UInt;
};

// The specialization for size 8.
template <>
class TypeWithSize<8> {
 public:
#if GTEST_OS_WINDOWS
  typedef __int64 Int;
  typedef unsigned __int64 UInt;
#else
  typedef long long Int;  // NOLINT
  typedef unsigned long long UInt;  // NOLINT
#endif  // GTEST_OS_WINDOWS
};


// This template class represents an IEEE floating-point number
// (either single-precision or double-precision, depending on the
// template parameters).
//
// The purpose of this class is to do more sophisticated number
// comparison.  (Due to round-off error, etc, it's very unlikely that
// two floating-points will be equal exactly.  Hence a naive
// comparison by the == operation often doesn't work.)
//
// Format of IEEE floating-point:
//
//   The most-significant bit being the leftmost, an IEEE
//   floating-point looks like
//
//     sign_bit exponent_bits fraction_bits
//
//   Here, sign_bit is a single bit that designates the sign of the
//   number.
//
//   For float, there are 8 exponent bits and 23 fraction bits.
//
//   For double, there are 11 exponent bits and 52 fraction bits.
//
//   More details can be found at
//   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_floating-point_standard.
//
// Template parameter:
//
//   RawType: the raw floating-point type (either float or double)
template <typename RawType>
class FloatingPoint {
 public:
  // Defines the unsigned integer type that has the same size as the
  // floating point number.
  typedef typename TypeWithSize<sizeof(RawType)>::UInt Bits;

  // Constants.

  // # of bits in a number.
  static const size_t kBitCount = 8*sizeof(RawType);

  // # of fraction bits in a number.
  static const size_t kFractionBitCount =
    std::numeric_limits<RawType>::digits - 1;

  // # of exponent bits in a number.
  static const size_t kExponentBitCount = kBitCount - 1 - kFractionBitCount;

  // The mask for the sign bit.
  static const Bits kSignBitMask = static_cast<Bits>(1) << (kBitCount - 1);

  // The mask for the fraction bits.
  static const Bits kFractionBitMask =
    ~static_cast<Bits>(0) >> (kExponentBitCount + 1);

  // The mask for the exponent bits.
  static const Bits kExponentBitMask = ~(kSignBitMask | kFractionBitMask);

  // How many ULP's (Units in the Last Place) we want to tolerate when
  // comparing two numbers.  The larger the value, the more error we
  // allow.  A 0 value means that two numbers must be exactly the same
  // to be considered equal.
  //
  // The maximum error of a single floating-point operation is 0.5
  // units in the last place.  On Intel CPU's, all floating-point
  // calculations are done with 80-bit precision, while double has 64
  // bits.  Therefore, 4 should be enough for ordinary use.
  //
  // See the following article for more details on ULP:
  // http://www.cygnus-software.com/papers/comparingfloats/comparingfloats.htm.
  static const size_t kMaxUlps = 4;

  // Constructs a FloatingPoint from a raw floating-point number.
  //
  // On an Intel CPU, passing a non-normalized NAN (Not a Number)
  // around may change its bits, although the new value is guaranteed
  // to be also a NAN.  Therefore, don't expect this constructor to
  // preserve the bits in x when x is a NAN.
  explicit FloatingPoint(const RawType& x) { u_.value_ = x; }

  // Static methods

  // Reinterprets a bit pattern as a floating-point number.
  //
  // This function is needed to test the AlmostEquals() method.
  static RawType ReinterpretBits(const Bits bits) {
    FloatingPoint fp(0);
    fp.u_.bits_ = bits;
    return fp.u_.value_;
  }

  // Returns the floating-point number that represent positive infinity.
  static RawType Infinity() {
    return ReinterpretBits(kExponentBitMask);
  }

  // Non-static methods

  // Returns the bits that represents this number.
  const Bits &bits() const { return u_.bits_; }

  // Returns the exponent bits of this number.
  Bits exponent_bits() const { return kExponentBitMask & u_.bits_; }

  // Returns the fraction bits of this number.
  Bits fraction_bits() const { return kFractionBitMask & u_.bits_; }

  // Returns the sign bit of this number.
  Bits sign_bit() const { return kSignBitMask & u_.bits_; }

  // Returns true iff this is NAN (not a number).
  bool is_nan() const {
    // It's a NAN if the exponent bits are all ones and the fraction
    // bits are not entirely zeros.
    return (exponent_bits() == kExponentBitMask) && (fraction_bits() != 0);
  }

  // Returns true iff this number is at most kMaxUlps ULP's away from
  // rhs.  In particular, this function:
  //
  //   - returns false if either number is (or both are) NAN.
  //   - treats really large numbers as almost equal to infinity.
  //   - thinks +0.0 and -0.0 are 0 DLP's apart.
  bool AlmostEquals(const FloatingPoint& rhs) const {
    // The IEEE standard says that any comparison operation involving
    // a NAN must return false.
    if (is_nan() || rhs.is_nan()) return false;

    return DistanceBetweenSignAndMagnitudeNumbers(u_.bits_, rhs.u_.bits_)
        <= kMaxUlps;
  }

 private:
  // The data type used to store the actual floating-point number.
  union FloatingPointUnion {
    RawType value_;  // The raw floating-point number.
    Bits bits_;      // The bits that represent the number.
  };

  // Converts an integer from the sign-and-magnitude representation to
  // the biased representation.  More precisely, let N be 2 to the
  // power of (kBitCount - 1), an integer x is represented by the
  // unsigned number x + N.
  //
  // For instance,
  //
  //   -N + 1 (the most negative number representable using
  //          sign-and-magnitude) is represented by 1;
  //   0      is represented by N; and
  //   N - 1  (the biggest number representable using
  //          sign-and-magnitude) is represented by 2N - 1.
  //
  // Read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signed_number_representations
  // for more details on signed number representations.
  static Bits SignAndMagnitudeToBiased(const Bits &sam) {
    if (kSignBitMask & sam) {
      // sam represents a negative number.
      return ~sam + 1;
    } else {
      // sam represents a positive number.
      return kSignBitMask | sam;
    }
  }

  // Given two numbers in the sign-and-magnitude representation,
  // returns the distance between them as an unsigned number.
  static Bits DistanceBetweenSignAndMagnitudeNumbers(const Bits &sam1,
                                                     const Bits &sam2) {
    const Bits biased1 = SignAndMagnitudeToBiased(sam1);
    const Bits biased2 = SignAndMagnitudeToBiased(sam2);
    return (biased1 >= biased2) ? (biased1 - biased2) : (biased2 - biased1);
  }

  FloatingPointUnion u_;
};

编辑:这篇文章是4年前写的。它可能仍然有效,代码也很好,但有些人发现了改进。最好从谷歌Test源代码中获得最新版本的AlmostEquals,而不是我粘贴在这里的那个。

其他回答

意识到这是一个老话题,但这篇文章是我发现的关于比较浮点数的最直接的文章之一,如果你想探索更多,它也有更详细的参考资料,它的主要站点涵盖了处理浮点数的完整范围的问题《浮点指南:比较》。

我们可以在浮点公差中找到一篇更实用的文章,并指出有绝对公差测试,在c++中归结为:

bool absoluteToleranceCompare(double x, double y)
{
    return std::fabs(x - y) <= std::numeric_limits<double>::epsilon() ;
}

及相对耐量试验:

bool relativeToleranceCompare(double x, double y)
{
    double maxXY = std::max( std::fabs(x) , std::fabs(y) ) ;
    return std::fabs(x - y) <= std::numeric_limits<double>::epsilon()*maxXY ;
}

文章指出,当x和y较大时,绝对检验失败;当x和y较小时,相对检验失败。假设绝对耐受性和相对耐受性是相同的,综合测试将是这样的:

bool combinedToleranceCompare(double x, double y)
{
    double maxXYOne = std::max( { 1.0, std::fabs(x) , std::fabs(y) } ) ;

    return std::fabs(x - y) <= std::numeric_limits<double>::epsilon()*maxXYOne ;
}

我为java编写这篇文章,但是您可能会发现它很有用。它使用长变量而不是双变量,但会处理nan、亚法线等。

public static boolean equal(double a, double b) {
    final long fm = 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFL;       // fraction mask
    final long sm = 0x8000000000000000L;    // sign mask
    final long cm = 0x8000000000000L;       // most significant decimal bit mask
    long c = Double.doubleToLongBits(a), d = Double.doubleToLongBits(b);        
    int ea = (int) (c >> 52 & 2047), eb = (int) (d >> 52 & 2047);
    if (ea == 2047 && (c & fm) != 0 || eb == 2047 && (d & fm) != 0) return false;   // NaN 
    if (c == d) return true;                            // identical - fast check
    if (ea == 0 && eb == 0) return true;                // ±0 or subnormals
    if ((c & sm) != (d & sm)) return false;             // different signs
    if (abs(ea - eb) > 1) return false;                 // b > 2*a or a > 2*b
    d <<= 12; c <<= 12;
    if (ea < eb) c = c >> 1 | sm;
    else if (ea > eb) d = d >> 1 | sm;
    c -= d;
    return c < 65536 && c > -65536;     // don't use abs(), because:
    // There is a posibility c=0x8000000000000000 which cannot be converted to positive
}
public static boolean zero(double a) { return (Double.doubleToLongBits(a) >> 52 & 2047) < 3; }

请记住,在一些浮点运算之后,number可能与我们期望的非常不同。没有代码可以解决这个问题。

使用任何其他建议都要非常小心。这完全取决于上下文。

我花了很长时间在一个系统中追踪错误,该系统假设|a-b|<epsilon,则a==b。潜在的问题是:

The implicit presumption in an algorithm that if a==b and b==c then a==c. Using the same epsilon for lines measured in inches and lines measured in mils (.001 inch). That is a==b but 1000a!=1000b. (This is why AlmostEqual2sComplement asks for the epsilon or max ULPS). The use of the same epsilon for both the cosine of angles and the length of lines! Using such a compare function to sort items in a collection. (In this case using the builtin C++ operator == for doubles produced correct results.)

就像我说的,这完全取决于上下文和a和b的预期大小。

顺便说一下,std::numeric_limits<double>::epsilon()是“机器epsilon”。它是1.0和下一个用double表示的值之间的差值。我猜它可以用在比较函数中,但只有当期望值小于1时。(这是对@cdv的回答的回应…)

同样,如果你的int算术是双精度的(这里我们在某些情况下使用双精度来保存int值),你的算术是正确的。例如,4.0/2.0将等同于1.0+1.0。只要你不做导致分数(4.0/3.0)的事情,或者不超出int的大小。

这取决于你想要的比较有多精确。如果您想对完全相同的数字进行比较,那么只需使用==。(除非你真的想要完全相同的数字,否则你几乎不会想这么做。)在任何一个不错的平台上,你都可以做到以下几点:

diff= a - b; return fabs(diff)<EPSILON;

因为晶圆厂往往很快。我说的快是指它基本上是一个位与,所以它最好快。

用于比较双精度和浮点数的整数技巧很好,但往往会使各种CPU管道更难有效处理。现在,由于使用堆栈作为频繁使用的值的临时存储区域,在某些有序架构上它肯定不会更快。(在乎的人可以去Load-hit-store。)

我对任何涉及浮点减法的答案都非常谨慎(例如,fabs(a-b) < epsilon)。首先,浮点数在更大的量级上变得更稀疏,在足够大的量级上,当间隔大于时,您可能只需要做a == b。其次,减去两个非常接近的浮点数(因为您正在寻找接近相等的浮点数)正是您得到灾难性抵消的方式。

虽然不能移植,但我认为grom的答案在避免这些问题方面做得最好。