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STRTOD(3P) POSIX Programmer's Manual STRTOD(3P)
PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (con-
sult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on
Linux.
NAME
strtod, strtof, strtold - convert a string to a double-precision number
SYNOPSIS
#include <stdlib.h>
double strtod(const char *restrict nptr, char **restrict endptr);
float strtof(const char *restrict nptr, char **restrict endptr);
long double strtold(const char *restrict nptr, char **restrict endptr);
DESCRIPTION
These functions shall convert the initial portion of the string pointed to by nptr to double, float, and long double rep-
resentation, respectively. First, they decompose the input string into three parts:
1. An initial, possibly empty, sequence of white-space characters (as specified by isspace())
2. A subject sequence interpreted as a floating-point constant or representing infinity or NaN
3. A final string of one or more unrecognized characters, including the terminating null byte of the input string
Then they shall attempt to convert the subject sequence to a floating-point number, and return the result.
The expected form of the subject sequence is an optional plus or minus sign, then one of the following:
* A non-empty sequence of decimal digits optionally containing a radix character, then an optional exponent part
* A 0x or 0X, then a non-empty sequence of hexadecimal digits optionally containing a radix character, then an optional
binary exponent part
* One of INF or INFINITY, ignoring case
* One of NAN or NAN(n-char-sequence_opt), ignoring case in the NAN part, where:
n-char-sequence:
digit
nondigit
n-char-sequence digit
n-char-sequence nondigit
The subject sequence is defined as the longest initial subsequence of the input string, starting with the first non-
white-space character, that is of the expected form. The subject sequence contains no characters if the input string is
not of the expected form.
If the subject sequence has the expected form for a floating-point number, the sequence of characters starting with the
first digit or the decimal-point character (whichever occurs first) shall be interpreted as a floating constant of the C
language, except that the radix character shall be used in place of a period, and that if neither an exponent part nor a
radix character appears in a decimal floating-point number, or if a binary exponent part does not appear in a hexadecimal
floating-point number, an exponent part of the appropriate type with value zero is assumed to follow the last digit in
the string. If the subject sequence begins with a minus sign, the sequence shall be interpreted as negated. A character
sequence INF or INFINITY shall be interpreted as an infinity, if representable in the return type, else as if it were a
floating constant that is too large for the range of the return type. A character sequence NAN or NAN(n-char-
sequence_opt) shall be interpreted as a quiet NaN, if supported in the return type, else as if it were a subject sequence
part that does not have the expected form; the meaning of the n-char sequences is implementation-defined. A pointer to
the final string is stored in the object pointed to by endptr, provided that endptr is not a null pointer.
If the subject sequence has the hexadecimal form and FLT_RADIX is a power of 2, the value resulting from the conversion
is correctly rounded.
The radix character is defined in the program's locale (category LC_NUMERIC ). In the POSIX locale, or in a locale where
the radix character is not defined, the radix character shall default to a period ( '.' ).
In other than the C or POSIX locales, other implementation-defined subject sequences may be accepted.
If the subject sequence is empty or does not have the expected form, no conversion shall be performed; the value of str
is stored in the object pointed to by endptr, provided that endptr is not a null pointer.
The strtod() function shall not change the setting of errno if successful.
Since 0 is returned on error and is also a valid return on success, an application wishing to check for error situations
should set errno to 0, then call strtod(), strtof(), or strtold(), then check errno.
RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, these functions shall return the converted value. If no conversion could be performed, 0
shall be returned, and errno may be set to [EINVAL].
If the correct value is outside the range of representable values, +-HUGE_VAL, +-HUGE_VALF, or +-HUGE_VALL shall be
returned (according to the sign of the value), and errno shall be set to [ERANGE].
If the correct value would cause an underflow, a value whose magnitude is no greater than the smallest normalized posi-
tive number in the return type shall be returned and errno set to [ERANGE].
ERRORS
These functions shall fail if:
ERANGE The value to be returned would cause overflow or underflow.
These functions may fail if:
EINVAL No conversion could be performed.
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
None.
APPLICATION USAGE
If the subject sequence has the hexadecimal form and FLT_RADIX is not a power of 2, and the result is not exactly repre-
sentable, the result should be one of the two numbers in the appropriate internal format that are adjacent to the hexa-
decimal floating source value, with the extra stipulation that the error should have a correct sign for the current
rounding direction.
If the subject sequence has the decimal form and at most DECIMAL_DIG (defined in <float.h>) significant digits, the
result should be correctly rounded. If the subject sequence D has the decimal form and more than DECIMAL_DIG significant
digits, consider the two bounding, adjacent decimal strings L and U, both having DECIMAL_DIG significant digits, such
that the values of L, D, and U satisfy L <= D <= U. The result should be one of the (equal or adjacent) values that would
be obtained by correctly rounding L and U according to the current rounding direction, with the extra stipulation that
the error with respect to D should have a correct sign for the current rounding direction.
The changes to strtod() introduced by the ISO/IEC 9899:1999 standard can alter the behavior of well-formed applications
complying with the ISO/IEC 9899:1990 standard and thus earlier versions of the base documents. One such example would be:
int
what_kind_of_number (char *s)
{
char *endp;
double d;
long l;
d = strtod(s, &endp);
if (s != endp && *endp == `\0')
printf("It's a float with value %g\n", d);
else
{
l = strtol(s, &endp, 0);
if (s != endp && *endp == `\0')
printf("It's an integer with value %ld\n", 1);
else
return 1;
}
return 0;
}
If the function is called with:
what_kind_of_number ("0x10")
an ISO/IEC 9899:1990 standard-compliant library will result in the function printing:
It's an integer with value 16
With the ISO/IEC 9899:1999 standard, the result is:
It's a float with value 16
The change in behavior is due to the inclusion of floating-point numbers in hexadecimal notation without requiring that
either a decimal point or the binary exponent be present.
RATIONALE
None.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
isspace(), localeconv(), scanf(), setlocale(), strtol(), the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Chapter 7,
Locale, <float.h>, <stdlib.h>
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for
Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6, Copy-
right (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any
discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group
Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.open-
group.org/unix/online.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2003 STRTOD(3P)
