Question

Now i know to use the method of float.Parse but have bumped into a problem.

I’m parsing the string “36.360”, however the parsed float becomes 36.3600006103516.

Am i safe to round it off to the 3 decimal places or is there a better tactic for parsing floats from strings.

Obviously i’m looking for the parsed float to be 36.360.

Answer 1

This is due to the fact that float or double are both stored in such a way that it is a mathematical process to read the value from memory. If you want to store the value as the actual value a better choice would be decimal.

Per the MSDN Page on System.Decimal:

The Decimal value type is appropriate for financial calculations
requiring large numbers of significant integral and fractional digits
and no round-off errors. The Decimal type does not eliminate the need
for rounding. Rather, it minimizes errors due to rounding.