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Doc Bug #47901 Need to define "large numbers" in base_convert limitations
Submitted: 2009-04-05 14:24 UTC Modified: 2009-11-19 13:14 UTC
From: exploringbinary at gmail dot com Assigned:
Status: Not a bug Package: Documentation problem
PHP Version: Irrelevant OS: Windows
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
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 [2009-04-05 14:24 UTC] exploringbinary at gmail dot com 
Description:
------------
The documentation for base_convert says "base_convert() may lose precision on large numbers...". Can you define exactly what "large number" is?  Without knowing the limit, it's hard to trust the results.

I know you can't specify a single limit, because it could vary by implementation. It still would be useful to define a limit for the most common implementations, like 32 bit unsigned integers or IEEE double floating-point. 

In the case of IEEE double floating-point, my guess is that the limit is 2^53, meaning that all integers less than or equal to 2^53 will be converted correctly. (All integers from 0 to 2^53 can fit in an IEEE double.) 

Related bug reports:
Bug #23564 base_convert() ignores last character
Bug #35874 base_convert is off on numbers greater than 13 decimal places

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AllCommentsChangesGit/SVN commitsRelated reports
 [2009-11-19 11:14 UTC] vrana@php.net 
There's a link to Floating point numbers.
 [2009-11-19 13:14 UTC] exploringbinary at gmail dot com 
Yes, I know there's a link. My bug report quotes text from the paragraph that contains it. There is nothing within that link, that I can see, that addresses my concern. If you see something there, please be specific.
 [2016-03-02 02:53 UTC] exploringbinary at gmail dot com 
In my article http://www.exploringbinary.com/the-safe-range-for-phps-base-convert/ I define the limits for safe base_convert() conversions. You can consider drawing from it to update your documentation.
 
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