Add the ability to parse/format a float/double from/to a hexadecimal literal #1630
Description
Part of #27204
In IEEE 754:2008 part 5.12.3, transfering a float/double from/to an external hexadecimal-significand character sequence representing finite number is requested while we don't have it yet. The pattern is like this: (regex)
[+-]?0[xX](?:[\da-fA-F]*\.[\da-fA-F]+|[\da-fA-F]\.?)(?:[pP][+-]?\d+)?notice that this is slightly different to the standard based on the discussion below, which talked about the exponent part
which means:
| valid | invalid |
|---|---|
| +0x7ff.3edp+1 | +7ff.3edp-1 |
| 0x7ff.3edp+1 | 0x7ff.3ede+1 |
| 0x7ff.3edp1 | 0x7ff.3uup1 |
| +0x7ff.3edp1 | 0x7ff.3ed |
| +0X7FF.3EDP1 | 0X7FF.3ED |
| -0x7ff.3edp1 | 0x7ff_3edp-1 |
| 0x7ff. | +-0x7ff.3edp-1 |
| 0x7ff | 0x7fu.3edp-1 |
| 0x.3edp-1 | 0x.p-1 |
benefits
- Easier parsing for native hexadecimal float/double. for example,
0x0.ffp0is the equivalent of0.99609375while using less chars. Same for formatting as it reduces the size of string to transfer. - Parsed number is percise in the limit of float/double's limitations. Since both float and double are based on raw bit, transistion from hexadecimal literal to them would be easier and without rounding if they are in the limitation. parsing decimals, on the other hand, would often has to round.
- It's in IEEE 754:2008/2019 standard, so it's necessary to add it.
proposal APIs
namespace System.Globalization {
[Flags]
enum NumberStyles {
// ...,
HexFloat = AllowLeadingWhite | AllowTrailingWhite | AllowLeadingSign | AllowHexSpecifier | AllowDecimalPoint
// ,...
}
}And let Numbers.ParseDouble/Single(string s, NumberStyles style[, NumberFormatInfo info]) accept Numberstyles.HexFloat (or it without NumberStyles.AllowDecimalPoint) and correctly parse string.
Edit Numbers.FormatDouble/Single(ref ValueStringBuilder sb, double/float value, ReadOnlySpan<char> format, NumberFormatInfo info) so that they can correctly identify X specifier (which is also used for outputting integers in hex) which may have a trailing precision specifier, and correctly format it.