note Rudif [Dominus]<p> <i>>> integral values less than about 2<SUP>53</SUP> will be represented and compared exactly</i><p> Since this OT is turning into a C refresher course, factual accuracy should be in order. Your statement is true of C/C++ <code>double</code>, which is also what Perl uses for numeric values. The example <code> float x, y; </code> declares a couple of single-precision floats, which can represent exactly integral values of up to about 2<SUP>25</SUP>. <p>A summary of IEEE-754 format can be found [http://www.psc.edu/general/software/packages/ieee/ieee.html|here] and an interactive converter [http://babbage.cs.qc.edu/courses/cs341/IEEE-754.html|here].<p> [Rudif] 131789 132063