How deeply does Modern C, Third Edition cover hexadecimal floating-point constant?

Defines the significand, P exponent, and numerical interpretation, but does not discuss compiler implementation or portability details.

Hexadecimal floating-point constant

As explained in Modern C, Third Edition

A hexadecimal floating-point literal is a C floating-point literal written with a hexadecimal significand and a binary exponent introduced by P or p.

A hexadecimal floating-point constant combines a hexadecimal significand with an exponent introduced by P or p. Its general form is 0XhPe, interpreted as h × 2^e: h uses hexadecimal digits, while e remains a decimal exponent. This notation is useful when specifying floating-point values with exact representations. section 5.3

Reading a hexadecimal floating-point constant

0x1.7aP-13 means the hexadecimal fraction 1.7a multiplied by 2 to the power −13. The hexadecimal significand supplies the value’s digits; P-13 supplies a binary scaling factor, not a power of 16. section 5.3

	`float`	`double`	`long` `double`
Literal	`0.2F`	`0.2`	`0.2L`
Value	`0x``1.9999’9AP-3F`	`0x``1.9999’9999’9999AP-3`	`0x``C.CCCC’ CCCC’ CCCC’ CCDP-6L`

Compare hexadecimal floating-point constants with float, double, and long double suffix forms. section 5.3

How Modern C, Third Edition covers it

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Modern CA hexadecimal floating-point constant is a C floating-point literal written with hexadecimal significand digits and a binary power exponent.

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Related concepts

C99produced by · C99 is the ISO standard revision of the C programming language published in 1999.
literalkind of · A literal is a language construct that directly denotes a fixed value or specifies an exact value permitted by a type.
binary representationequivalent to · Binary representation expresses information or values using a base-two positional system with two symbols, conventionally zero and one.
hexadecimal numbercontrasts with · A hexadecimal number is a numeral represented in the base-sixteen positional system using symbols 0–9 and A–F for values zero through fifteen.
floating-point constantkind of · A floating-point constant is source-code numeric literal syntax that denotes a value in a floating-point type.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Modern C, Third Edition. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.