floatingrange

Floatingrange is a conceptual data construct used to describe a contiguous interval of real numbers whose endpoints and steps are defined with floating-point values. It is commonly used in programming and numeric libraries to model ranges where values are not restricted to integers.

A floatingrange is typically defined by a lower bound, an upper bound, and optionally a step. The associated set or sequence includes values such as those satisfying L <= x <= U when stepping from L to U by S. Endpoints may be inclusive or, in some APIs, the upper bound may be exclusive. Because floating-point numbers are inexact, implementations must be explicit about whether endpoints are included and how the final value is produced.

Floatingranges must handle floating-point precision issues. Computing the number of elements as floor((U - L)/S) + 1 can be off by one due to rounding errors. Iteration strategies often involve incremental addition with safeguards for drift, or using integer counters paired with scaled representations. Special values such as NaN or infinities are typically disallowed or explicitly rejected.

Typical use cases include user interface components like sliders, input validation ranges, and discretization of continuous spaces in simulations or numerical methods. Floatingranges can be contrasted with integer ranges, continuous intervals without a fixed step, or open versus closed interval conventions.

See also: interval, range, numeric range, discretization, stepping. Example: a floatingrange from 0.0 to 1.0 with step 0.25 yields 0.0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0.