Single-precision floating-point format

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Single-precision floating-point format (sometimes called FP32, float32, or float) is a computer number format, usually occupying 32 bits in computer memory; it represents a wide range of numeric values by using a floating radix point. A floating-point variable can represent a wider range of numbers than a fixed-point variable of the same bit width at the cost of precision. A signed 32-bit integer variable has a maximum value of 231 − 1 = 2,147,483,647, whereas an IEEE 754 32-bit base-2 floating-point variable has a maximum finite value of (2 − 2−23) × 2127 ≈ 3.4028235 × 1038. All integers with seven or fewer decimal digits, and any 2n for a whole number −149 ≤ n ≤ 127, can be converted exactly into an IEEE 754 single-precision floating-point value. In the IEEE 754 standard, the 32-bit base-2 format is officially referred to as binary32; it was called single in IEEE 754-1985. IEEE 754 specifies additional floating-point types, such as 64-bit base-2 double precision and, more recently, base...

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