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Bug #64760 var_export() does not use full precision for floating-point numbers
Submitted: 2013-05-02 12:12 UTC Modified: 2013-11-19 22:03 UTC
From: cf0hay at gmail dot com Assigned: yohgaki (profile)
Status: Closed Package: Variables related
PHP Version: 5.4.14 OS: Linux 64bit (PHP 64bit too)
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
 [2013-05-02 12:12 UTC] cf0hay at gmail dot com
Description:
------------
var_export() truncates floating-point precision. serialize() does not have the same problem.

Test script:
---------------
<?php
$a = microtime(true);

echo "error of serialize(): ";
var_export($a - unserialize(serialize($a))); //This returns 0.
echo "\n";

echo "error of var_export(): ";
eval('$b = '.var_export($a,true).';');
var_export($a - $b); //Almost never 0.
echo "\n";


Expected result:
----------------
Exporting a floating-point value should generate enough digits to prevent precision loss. The script above should always return 0 on the second case.

Actual result:
--------------
The difference between the original floating point value and the one exported differs. The error is about 15 magnitude lower than the magnitude of the value itself.

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History

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 [2013-10-23 09:09 UTC] yohgaki@php.net
-Status: Open +Status: Analyzed
 [2013-10-23 09:09 UTC] yohgaki@php.net
The difference came from 

var_export()
-------------------------------------------------------
	case IS_DOUBLE:
		tmp_len = spprintf(&tmp_str, 0,"%.*H", (int) EG(precision), Z_DVAL_PP(struc));
		smart_str_appendl(buf, tmp_str, tmp_len);
		efree(tmp_str);
		break;-------------------------------------------------------



serialize()
-------------------------------------------------------
		case IS_DOUBLE: {
				char *s;

				smart_str_appendl(buf, "d:", 2);
				s = (char *) safe_emalloc(PG(serialize_precision), 1, MAX_LENGTH_OF_DOUBLE + 1);
				php_gcvt(Z_DVAL_P(struc), PG(serialize_precision), '.', 'E', s);
				smart_str_appends(buf, s);
				smart_str_appendc(buf, ';');
				efree(s);
				return;
			}
-------------------------------------------------------

var_export() uses precision=14 while serialize() uses precision=17 by default.

-------
[yohgaki@dev php-5.5]$ php -e precision=17 scr.php
error of serialize(): 0
error of var_export(): 0
-------

Since var_export() is better to behave like serialize(), var_export() is better to use PG(serialize_precision) instead of PG(precision).
 [2013-10-23 23:53 UTC] yohgaki@php.net
-Assigned To: +Assigned To: yohgaki
 [2013-10-29 11:29 UTC] yohgaki@php.net
-Status: Analyzed +Status: Closed
 [2013-10-29 11:29 UTC] yohgaki@php.net
Committed fix, but not auto closed. Closing

 3cf2682083fc1c8635b02c4cf77bdf12c5e5da35
 [2013-11-14 03:07 UTC] whatthejeff@php.net
This change can break tests on some systems. See https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/525.
 [2013-11-14 03:09 UTC] whatthejeff@php.net
Corrected link: https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/525
 [2013-11-14 03:13 UTC] whatthejeff@php.net
This might also be worth mentioning in the UPGRADING file and/or the documentation as it caused some confusion in the PHPUnit project: https://github.com/sebastianbergmann/phpunit/issues/1052
 [2013-11-19 22:03 UTC] yohgaki@php.net
I've mentioned in NEWS that this bug was fixed in 5.4/5.5.

I can understand your proposal, but UPGRADING is for new release..
 
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