FLOATREALDOUBLE

FLOATREALDOUBLE is a term sometimes used in discussions of programming languages and numerical libraries to denote a floating-point numeric type that embodies aspects of both single-precision (float) and double-precision (double) representations. It is not a standard data type in major languages, but appears as a conceptual placeholder or as a typedef/alias in projects that need to abstract over precision.

In practice, FLOATREALDOUBLE can refer to one of several implementation patterns: a fixed alias mapped at compile time to either float or double; a dynamic/variant type that stores a value in either 32-bit or 64-bit form with a runtime tag; or a template/generic type parameter that resolves to a precision chosen by the programmer. The exact range and precision depend on the underlying representation: a 32-bit float offers about 7 decimal digits of precision and a range around 1.4E-45 to 3.4E38; a 64-bit double offers about 15–17 digits of precision and a range around 4.9E-324 to 1.8E308.

Operations on a FLOATREALDOUBLE follow the rules of floating-point arithmetic, including handling of NaN, infinities, rounding, and exception behavior, with the caveat that precision and performance vary with the chosen underlying type. If used as a dynamic type, additional overhead arises from type tagging and value boxing.

See also Floating-point, float, double, numerical precision, IEEE 754.