Dec 092017
 
C code to convert floating-point values between IEEE "double" format and Borland (Turbo) Pascal "real" format. Uploaded by author.
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C code to convert floating-point values between IEEE “double” format and Borland (Turbo) Pascal “real” format. Uploaded by author.
File Name File Size Zip Size Zip Type
BPREAL.C 5083 1354 deflated
BPREAL.DOC 10020 3619 deflated
BPRTEST.C 1174 541 deflated

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Contents of the BPREAL.DOC file


BPREAL
Borland Pascal Real-Type Conversions
by Richard Biffl


The accompanying module, BPREAL.C, contains functions in the
C language to convert floating-point numbers between the IEEE
"double" type used by most PC-based C compilers and the
proprietary "real" type used by Borland Pascal. The functions
allow C programs to read numeric data stored by Borland Pascal
programs, and to write numeric data in a format accessible to
Borland Pascal programs.

Recent versions of Borland Pascal, beginning with Turbo
Pascal 4.0, support the same IEEE-standard floating-point types
used by C (and other) compilers, but the use of IEEE types in
Borland Pascal is optional. Many Pascal programmers continue to
use Borland's default real type because programs that use it do
not require a numeric coprocessor or coprocessor-emulation code.

Borland Pascal can automatically convert values between real
and IEEE formats, but other languages do not have built-in
support for the real type. The appropriate IEEE type for real
conversions is the 8-byte double-precision type, called double in
both C and Borland Pascal, which can store any value that can be
stored by a 6-byte real. The real_to_double function in the
BPREAL module performs this conversion, returning a C double.

BPREAL's double_to_real function performs the opposite
conversion, from C double to Borland Pascal real. The function
can return an error code to indicate whether the original double
value was accurately converted to the narrower real type.


The Real and Double Formats

The real and double formats comprise three fields: a sign
bit, a significand field, and an exponent field. For the real
type, the fields can be visualized as arranged like this, with
the most significant bit at the left end of each field:

Field: Sign Significand Exponent
Width (bits): 1 39 8

The fields of the IEEE double type are arranged like this:

Field: Sign Exponent Significand
Width (bits): 1 11 52

In a PC's memory, these values are stored with the right-most 8-
bit bytes at the lowest address (or first on a disk), so that the
real's exponent would be stored as the first byte and its sign
bit would be the most significant (leftmost) bit of the sixth
byte.

The sign bit is set when the value is less than 0.0
(negative). The exponent field (8 bits for real, 11 bits for
double) represents the integer part of the base-2 logarithm of
the value, indicating the value's absolute magnitude. The
exponent is biased by some value (129 for real, 1023 for double),
so although the binary value of the field is positive, it can
signify a negative value when the bias is subtracted from it.
The significand field (39 bits for real, 52 bits for double) is
the fractional part by which the value indicated by the exponent
is increased. Thus, for both types, the represented value is
generally


Sign Significand (Exponent - Bias)
(-1) * (1 + -------------------) * 2
SignificandWidth
2


There are a few special cases. The value of a real is 0.0
when the exponent field is 0, i.e., when no bit in the exponent
field is set. The IEEE double has a value of 0.0 when both the
exponent field and the significand field have values of 0, but
the double's sign bit can be set to represent -0.0 as well as
0.0. When all 11 bits are set in the double's exponent field, so
that it has its highest possible value (2047), and none of the
bits in the significand field is set, so that its value is 0, the
double's value is Inf (infinity) or -Inf, depending on the sign
bit. If the double's exponent field is 2047 and its significand
is not equal to 0, the value is NaN (not a number).

The real's format permits an absolute range of approximately
2.9e-39 to 1.7e38 (decimal) and a precision of 11-12 significant
decimal digits. The double's wider format offers an absolute
range of approximately 5.0e-324 to 1.7e308 and a precision of 15-
16 significant digits. (The tiniest values represented by
doubles sacrifice precision for their very low magnitude.)


Conversion Functions

Conversion between a real and a double mainly involves
transferring the bit fields from the source to the target.
Because there is no high-level access to the bits in a double,
and C has no real type, both double and real must be treated as
arrays, the elements of which can be manipulated individually at
the bit level. Instead of treating doubles and reals as arrays
of bytes, it is more efficient to treat them as arrays of 16-bit
unsigned ints. A typedef statement in BPREAL.C declares the
"real" type as an array of 3 unsigned ints, and a "doublearray"
union so that doubles can be handled as arrays of 4 unsigned
ints.

The bits contained in each of the arrays' elements are
listed below. For each element, its contents are listed from
left to right (most significant bit to least significant), and
bit 1 of each field is the field's most significant bit:

real[2] Sign 1, Significand 1-15
real[1] Significand 16-31
real[0] Significand 32-39, Exponent 1-8

doublearray.a[3] Sign 1, Exponent 1-11, Significand 1-4
doublearray.a[2] Significand 5-20
doublearray.a[1] Significand 21-36
doublearray.a[0] Significand 37-52

Conversion from real to double is straightforward, because
any value that can be represented by a real can be represented by
a double. The real_to_double function first checks whether the
exponent is 0. If so, it returns the double 0.0. Otherwise, it
adds 894 to the exponent because the double's exponent bias
(1023) is 894 greater than the real's bias (129), and it places
the exponent in the correct location in the double (element 3,
shifted 4 bits to the left). It then moves the sign bit and the
39-bit significand to their proper locations.

Conversion from double to real is trickier, because the IEEE
type has greater range and precision and more special cases than
the real. Since error-free conversion is not assured, the
double_to_real function returns an error code of an enumerated
type called prconverr (for Pascal Real Conversion Error). The
error codes range in increasing seriousness from prOK, which
means no error, to prNaN, which means that the double value was
NaN (not a number), which cannot be represented by a real.

The double_to_real function first checks whether the double
value is 0.0 or -0.0, either of which is converted to a real
representation of 0.0 before returning prOK.

Next, the function checks whether all the bits in the
double's exponent are set. If they are, the double's value is
either Inf or NaN (or one of their negations). If the value is
Inf, the real's exponent and significand fields are filled so as
to represent the largest value possible, the sign bit is
transferred, and the code prInf is returned. If the value is
NaN, a real value of 0.0 and a code of prNaN are returned.

After these tests, the significand is rounded. The real's
39-bit significand does not allow as much precision as the
double's 52-bit significand. To keep as much precision as
possible, the 40th bit of the double's significand is tested. If
the 40th bit is set, the significand's 39th bit is incremented.
If all of the first 40 bits of the double's significand are set,
bits 1 to 39 are cleared and the exponent is incremented. The
exponent field is guaranteed not to be filled, so incrementing
the exponent will succeed, because the function has already
tested the exponent for its maximum value in checking whether the
double's value was Inf or NaN.

After rounding, the function places the value of the
double's exponent in a variable and checks whether it fits within
the range of valid real exponents. Real exponents range from 1
to 255 biased, or -128 to 126. To fit in this range, the
double's biased exponent must range from 895 to 1149. If the
double's exponent is less then 895, a real value of 0.0 and a
code of prPosUnderflow or prNegUnderflow (depending on the
double's sign) are returned. If the double's exponent is greater
than 1149, the real is set to its maximum value, the double's
sign bit is transferred to the real, and a code of prOverflow is
returned.

After these checks, the function is assured of a valid
conversion. The exponent is re-biased for the real range, and it
is transferred to the real along with the sign bit and the first
39 bits of the double's significand (which may have been
rounded). A code of prOK is then returned.


BPRTEST Demonstration Program

BPRTEST.C is a demonstration program that prompts the user
for 6 values of type double, displaying each one, converting it
to a real, displaying the conversion result code, and writing the
real value to a file called BPREALS.DAT. The program then reads
the real values from the file, converting each real value to a
double and displaying it. Comparison of the original values with
the values read from the file will show how double values are
changed when they are converted to reals (real values never
change when converted to doubles).


Reference

The information herein is derived from the Borland Pascal
with Objects 7.0 Language Guide, Borland International 1992.


Use and Distribution

You may freely use and distribute BPREAL.C, BPRTEST.C, and
BPREAL.DOC, but any distribution should include all 3 files
together and intact. Send questions or comments to the author,
Richard Biffl, at 1024 N. Utah St. #618, Arlington, Virginia
22201, or on CompuServe at 73607,3043.


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