Reading MSDN, float ranges from 1E-45 to 1E38, double ranges from 1E-324 to 1E308, I am wondering why it is asymmetric for negative and positive exponents?
Reading MSDN, float ranges from 1E-45 to 1E38, double ranges from 1E-324 to 1E308,
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Your confusion stems from thinking that “1E-45” is a negative number. It is not – it is in fact a very small positive number: 1 x 10^-45 or rather, 0.000…0001 – which has 44 “0”s between the “0.” and the “1”
This represents the minimum unit of accuracy that a float can store (or similar – the articles that other people have linked to will explain in detail, if you need to know).
The other number, “1E38” is an indication of the largest number that can be stored in this datatype. This is 1 x 10^38 or rather 10000…0000 i.e. 1 with 38 0s after it.