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But my point is that I can never make fractionDigits large enough to reach a
representation of 1/3 since that would require fractionDigits to equal
infinity. I want to be able to represent exactly 1/3, not some close
approximation of it.
Now I know people are going to say "you can't do that in computers because
of floating point stuff" but that isn't really true - if you represent the
numerator and denominator separately then you can represent it perfectly
fine.
A use-case for this is the representation of a tax calculation where the
legislation specifically dictates factors to be applied to other numbers
that are fractions (and often more complicated than 1/3 which I was using as
a simple example). These factors may well not be representable accurately as
decimals.
Cheers
Hugh
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chiusano Joseph" <chiusano_joseph@bah.com>
To: "Hugh Wallis" <hugh_wallis@hyperion.com>
Cc: <xml-dev@lists.xml.org>
Sent: Monday, 10 February, 2003 1:51 PM
Subject: Re: [xml-dev] Best way to represent fractional values?
<Snip>
What you suggest would limit me to 0.33
</Snip>
Not at all, if you make fractionDigits greater than 2.
Hugh Wallis wrote:
>
> Thanks Joe - but I don't think that solves the problem. How do you
represent
> the value 1/3 exactly this way? What you suggest would limit me to 0.33
> which is 33/100 which does not equal 1/3
>
> Hugh
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Chiusano Joseph" <chiusano_joseph@bah.com>
> To: "Hugh Wallis" <hugh_wallis@hyperion.com>
> Cc: <xml-dev@lists.xml.org>
> Sent: Monday, 10 February, 2003 1:01 PM
> Subject: Re: [xml-dev] Best way to represent fractional values?
>
> Hugh,
>
> W3C Schema does define facets for these:
>
> totalDigits - max # of digits in the value
> fractionDigits - max # of digits in fractional part
>
> Ex. from W3C Schema Primer [1]:
>
> <simpleType name='amount'>
> <restriction base='decimal'>
> <totalDigits value='8'/>
> <fractionDigits value='2' fixed='true'/>
> </restriction>
> </simpleType>
>
> Hope that helps,
> Joe Chiusano
> Booz | Allen | Hamilton
>
> [1] http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-0/
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