Isolate the fractional part of a double using bitwise operations in c++

Question

I am stuck on an assignment for my modern numerical software development class.

Function prototype (assume x = 6.5):

//returns the IEEE fractional part of x as a decimal floating point number. You must convert binary to decimal.
inline double fraction(double x) {}

What I got:

inline double fraction(double x)
{
    // Get the fraction
    unsigned long long frac_mask = (1u << 52) - 1;                      // Get 52 1's
    unsigned long long xint = *reinterpret_cast<long long*>(&x);        // Interpret x's bits as an int
    unsigned long long frac_num = xint & frac_mask;                                 // Get the fraction as an int
    double fraction = double(frac_num) / double(2u << 52);              // Divide frac_num by 2^52

    return fraction;

    /* This code works, but is not what is specified:
        double fraction = x / pow(2, exponent(x));
        fraction = fmod(fraction, 1);
        return fraction;
    */
}

I keep getting a NaN. The answer I am looking for is 0.625. I am kind of hopelessly lost. Any help is much appreciated.

I was able to successfully isolate the exponent of the double with the following function:

inline int exponent(double x) //returns the unbiased(true) binary exponent of x as a decimal integer. Remember that subnormals are a special case. Consider 0 to be a subnormal.
{
    if (x == 0.0)
        return -1022;
    else if (isnan(x))
        return 1024;

    // Get the exponent
    unsigned long long exp_mask = (1u << 11) - 1;                       // Get eleven 1's
    exp_mask <<= 52;                                                    // Move into place
    unsigned long long xint = *reinterpret_cast<long long*>(&x);        // Interpret x's bits as an int
    unsigned long long exp_bits = xint & exp_mask;                      // Get the exponent bits
    unsigned long long exp = exp_bits >> 52;                            // Get the exponent as a number
    return exp -1023;
}

I am confused why the exponent logic works, but the fraction won't.

Answer 1

You are mixing unsigned (presumably 32-bits) with values that need 64 bits.

For example, frac_num is only 32-bits, use a long or long long... [or uint64_t, which is a more reliable way to get a 64-bit value.

inline double fraction(double x)
{
    // Get the fraction
    uint64_t frac_mask = (1ul << 52) - 1;                      // Get 52 1's
//    uint64_t xint = *reinterpret_cast<uint64_t*>(&x);        // Interpret x's bits as an int
      uint64_t xint; 
      memcpy(&xint, &x, sizeof(xint));        // Interpret x's bits as an int
    int64_t frac_num = xint & frac_mask;                                    // Get the fraction as an int
    frac_num += 1ul << 52; // Add hidden bit.
    double fraction = double(frac_num) / double(2ul << 52);              // Divide frac_num by 2^52

    return fraction;
}

Note the addition of l to the 1u and 2u, to ensure they are long, and. You will need to include cstdint to get the sized integers.

Edit: that will of course just give you the mantissa in the form of a fraction. The decimal point may be anywhere between bit 1023 and -1023, meaning that only values between -1 and +1 will have the correct result.

A complete example using the code above [+ some printouts]

#include <cstdint>
#include <iostream>
#include <cstring>

inline double fraction(double x)
{
    // Get the fraction
    uint64_t frac_mask = (1ul << 52) - 1;                      // Get 52 1's
    std::cout << "mask=" << std::hex << frac_mask << std::endl;
//    uint64_t xint = *reinterpret_cast<uint64_t*>(&x);        // Interpret x's bits as an int
      uint64_t xint; 
      memcpy(&xint, &x, sizeof(xint));        // Interpret x's bits as an int
    int64_t frac_num = xint & frac_mask;                                    // Get the fraction as an int

    frac_num += 1ul << 52; // Add hidden bit.
    std::cout << "xint=" << std::hex << xint << " num=" << std::hex << frac_num << std::endl;
    double fraction = double(frac_num) / double(2ul << 52);              // Divide frac_num by 2^52

    return fraction;
}


int main()
{
    double a = 0.5;
    double b = 0.75;
    double d = 6.5;
    double e = 4.711;


    double fa  = fraction(a);
    double fb  = fraction(b);
    double fd  = fraction(d);
    double fe  = fraction(e);

    std::cout << "fa=" << std::fixed << fa << " fb=" << fb << std::endl;
    std::cout << "fd=" << std::fixed << fd << " fe=" << fe << std::endl;
}

resutl of running the above:

mask=fffffffffffff
xint=3fe0000000000000 num=10000000000000
mask=fffffffffffff
xint=3fe8000000000000 num=18000000000000
mask=fffffffffffff
xint=401a000000000000 num=1a000000000000
mask=fffffffffffff
xint=4012d810624dd2f2 num=12d810624dd2f2
fa=0.500000 fb=0.750000
fd=0.812500 fe=0.588875

Note that if you divide 4.711 by 2 a few times [3 times to be precise], you get 0.588875, and if you divide 6.5 by 8 (or by 2 three times over), you get 0.8125

I need to go to bed, but you basically have to take the exponent into account to figure out the fraction of a floating point number. Or simply convert to an integer, and subtract it - as long as it's within range.