how to use AtomiccmpExchange with double? - delphi

I have a double value that I need to access to inside a backgroundThread. I would like to use somethink like AtomiccmpExchange but seam to not work with double. is their any other equivalent that I can use with double ? I would like to avoid to use Tmonitor.enter / Tmonitor.exit as I need something the most fast as possible. I m under android/ios so under firemonkey

You could type cast the double values into UInt64 values:
PUInt64(#dOld)^ := AtomicCmpExchange(PUInt64(#d)^,PUInt64(#dNew)^,PUInt64(#dCom‌​p)^);
Note that you need to align the variables properly, according to platforms specifications.
As #David pointed out, comparing doublevalues is not the same as comparing UInt64 values. There are some specific double values that will behave out of the ordinary:
A NaN is normally (as specified in IEEE-754) detected by comparing a value by itself.
IsNaN := d <> d;
footnote: Delphi default exception handler is triggered in the event of comparing a NaN, but other compilers may behave differently. In Delphi there is an IsNaN() function to use instead.
Likewise the value zero could be both positive and negative, for a special meaning. Comparing double 0 with double -0 will return true, but comparing the memory footprint will return false.

Maybe use of System.SyncObjs.TInterlocked class methods will be better?

Related

single, double and precision

I know that storing single value (or double) can not be very precise. so storing for example 125.12 can result in 125.1200074788. now in delphi their is some usefull function like samevalue or comparevalue that take an epsilon as param and say that 125.1200074788 or for exemple 125.1200087952 is equal.
but i often see in code stuff like : if aSingleVar = 0 then ... and this in fact as i see always work. why ? why storing for exemple 0 in a single var keep the exact value ?
Only values that are in form m*2^e, where m and e are integers can be stored in a floating point variable (not all of them though, it depends on precision). 0 has this form, and 125.12 does not, as it equals 3128/25, and 1/25 is not an integer power of 2.
Comparing 125.12 to a single (or double) precision variable will most probably return always False, because a literal 125.12 will be treated as an extended precision number, and no single (or double) precision number would have such a value.
Looks like a good use for the BigDecimals unit by Rudy Velthuis. Millions of decimal places of accuracy and precision.

What is the correct constant to use when comparing with the Minimal Single Number in Delphi?

In a loop like this:
cur := -999999; // represent a minimal possible value hold by a Single type
while ... do
begin
if some_value > cur then
cur := some_value;
end;
There is MaxSingle/NegInfinitydefined in System.Math
MaxSingle = 340282346638528859811704183484516925440.0;
NegInfinity = -1.0 / 0.0;
So should I use -MaxSingle or NegInfinity in this case?
I assume you are trying to find the largest value in a list.
If your values are in an array, just use the library function MaxValue(). (If you look at the implementation of MaxValue, you'll see that it takes the first value in the array as the starting point.)
If you must implement it yourself, use -MaxSingle as the starting value, which is approximately -3.40e38. This is the most negative value that can be represented in a Single.
Special values like Infinity and NaN have special rules in comparisons, so I would avoid these unless you are sure about what those rules are. (See also How do arbitrary floating point values compare to infinity?. In fact, it seems NegInfinity would work OK.)
It might help to understand the range of values that can be represented by a Single. In order, most negative to most positive, they are:
NegInfinity
-MaxSingle .. -MinSingle
0
MinSingle .. MaxSingle
Infinity

Expression illegal in evaluator

I'm trying to code something but there is happening something I don't understand.
I get some values from a database and loop over them and change some of them if needed.
This is what I'm trying to do:
if qryGeneral.fieldbyname('B_PRIJS').IsNull or
qryGeneral.fieldbyname('B_PRIJS').Value = 0 then
begin
if (qryGeneral.fieldbyname('V_PRIJS').Value <> 0) or
(qryGeneral.fieldbyname('V_PRIJSEXCL').Value <> 0) then
//make some calculations and save data
end;
B_PRIJS is a float, null type in a SQL Server DB. When I set a breakpoint and I hover .Value it shows 0,11. When I hover IsNull it shows False, so far so good.
Now I would expect it would NOT enter the if-structure, because it is not null and not equal to 0, but it does enter the if-structure.
I don't understand why, I always coded like this.
When I select qryGeneral.fieldbyname('B_PRIJS').Value = 0 while still being in debug mode, I get a message "Expression illegal in evaluator".
I tried replacing Value into AsFloat or changing 0 into 0.0 but it doesn't work.
What am I doing wrong or not understanding here?
Delphi's operator precedence rules mean that your expression is evaluated like this:
if (qryGeneral.fieldbyname('B_PRIJS').IsNull or qryGeneral.fieldbyname('B_PRIJS').Value)
= 0 then
Put parentheses around your = expression just like you have around you <> expressions, and you should get closer to the results you expect. However, the Value property is a Variant. When comparing a Variant to an Integer, the = operator will cause the Variant to be converted to an Integer. Delphi's variant-type-conversion rules show that a Variant holding a real value will be rounded to the nearest integer when the target type is an integer, so your 0.11 value will be rounded to zero. Consider comparing to 0.0 instead.

Is it better to write 0.0, 0.0f or .0f instead of simple 0 for supposed float or double values

Hello well all is in the title. The question apply especially for all those values that can be like NSTimeInterval, CGFloat or any other variable that is a float or a double. Thanks.
EDIT: I'm asking for value assignment not format in a string.
EDIT 2: The question is really does assigning a plain 0 for a float or a double is worst than anything with f a the end.
The basic difference is as :
1.0 or 1. is a double constant
1.0f is a float constant
Without a suffix, a literal with a decimal in it (123.0) will be treated as a double-precision floating-point number. If you assign or pass that to a single-precision variable or parameter, the compiler will (should) issue a warning. Appending f tells the compiler you want the literal to be treated as a single-precision floating-point number.
If you are initializing a variable then it make no sense. compiler does all the cast for you.
float a = 0; //Cast int 0 to float 0.0
float b = 0.0; //Cast 0.0 double to float 0.0 as by default floating point constants are double
float c = 0.0f // Assigning float to float. .0f is same as 0.0f
But if you are using these in an expression then that make a lot of sense.
6/5 becomes 1
6/5.0 becomes 1.2 (double value)
6/5.0f becomes 1.2 (float value)
If you want to dig out if there is any difference to the target CPU running the code or the binary code it executes, you can easily copy one of the command lines compiling the code from XCode to command line, fix missing environment variables and add a -S. By that you would get assembly output, that you can use to compare. If you put all 4 variants in a small example source file, you can compare the resulting assembly code afterwards, even without being fluent in ARM assembly.
From my ARM assembly experience (okay... 6 years ago and GCC) I would bet 1ct on something like XORing a register with itself to flush it's content to 0.
Whether you use 0.0, .0, or 0.0f or even 0f does not make much of a difference. (There are some with respect to double and float) You may even use (float) 0.
But there is a significant difference between 0 and some float notation. Zero will always be some type of integer. And that can force the machine to perform integer operations when you may want float operations instead.
I do not have a good example for zero handy but I've got one for float/int in general, which nealy drove me crazy the other day.
I am used to 8-Bit-RGB colors That is because of my hobby as photographer and because of my recent background as html developer. So I felt it difficult to get used to the cocoa style 0..1 fractions of red, green and yellow. To overcome that I wanted to use the values that I was used to and devide them by 255.
[CGColor colorWithRed: 128/255 green: 128/255 andYellow: 128/255];
That should generate me some nice middle gray. But it did not. All that I tried either made a black or white.
First I thought that this was caused by some undocumented dificiency of the UI text objects with which I was using this colour. It took a while to realize that this constant values forced integer operations wich can only round up or down to 0 and 1.
This expession eventually did what I wanted to achieve:
[CGColor colorWithRed: 128.0/255.0 green: 128.0/255.0 andYellow: 128.0/255.0];
You could achieve the same thing with less .0s attached. But it does not hurt having more of them as needed. 128.0f/(float)255 would do either.
Edit to respond to your "Edit2":
float fvar;
fvar = 0;
vs ...
fvar = .0;
In the end it does not make a difference at all. fvar will contain a float value close to (but not always equal to) 0.0. For compilers in the 60th and 70th I would have guessed that there is a minor performance issue associated with fvar = 0. That is that the compiler creates an int 0 first which will then have to be converted to float before the assignment. Modern compilers of today should optimize automatically much better than older ones. In the end I'd have to look at the machine code output to see whether it does make a difference.
However, with fvar = .0; you are always on the safe site.

AsFloat convert to string

Hi
I want to convert "qrysth.Fields[i].AsFloat" to a string so I use the following code:
FormatFloat('0.###############',qrysth.Fields[i].AsFloat)
but I find the result string is 12.000000000000001 while qrysth.Fields[i].AsFloat is 12.00. I know FormatFloat actually not use 12.00 to do the convert, but use an infinite number of binary to do the convert. (like 0.1 in decimal system is 0.1, but it is an infinite number in binary system 0.00011001100...)
Is there other way I could get 12.00 in the case above? or 12.000000000000000 at least?
If you really get 12.000000000000001, then your field didn't hold exactly 12, so the output is correct. You asked for high precision by putting so many # characters in the format. If you don't want it so precise, then use a less precise format string.
FormatFloat('0.00',qrysth.Fields[i].AsFloat) will give '12.00'.
To be able to get '12.000000000000000' you should do the rounding yourself, as there's no loss of precision.
I want to convert
"qrysth.Fields[i].AsFloat" to a string
Then why not use AsString?
qrysth.Fields[i].AsString
This will give you the best representation, as long as you're not concerned about the exact width. If you are, use FormatFloat with the exact number of digits you need - in other words, if you're looking for 12.00, use FormatFloat('##.##', qrysth.Fields[i].AsFloat), or even better CurrToStrand AsCurrency, as they automatically uses two digits after the decimal point.
function MyFormatFloat(V: Double): String;
const
DesiredMinPrec = '0.000000000000000';
AssumedMaxPrec = '0.#####';
begin
Result := FormatFloat(DesiredMinPrec, StrToFloat(FormatFloat(AssumedMaxPrec, V)));
end;

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