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I am reading a string which i have to convert into a float with a maximum of precision.I didn't want to use toFloat() function since it make a truncation so i made my own code. My problem is that the final result is also approximated. I need a precision of 4 digits after the float.I read the documentation about float in the arduino website.They say it should be maximum 7 digits of precision but i don't get it.When i test my code on the value of '23,459' ,all i get is 23,46. Any suggestions?

void setup() { 

 Serial.begin(9600); 


} 
int longu=0;
char data='2';
  String data2="23,459";
  float val=0;
  int posVir=0;
  int t=0;
  float postVir=0;
  float preVir=0;
  int lonPostVir=0;
  int lonPreVir=0;
  float posvir2=0;
  void loop() 
{


   lonPostVir=(data2.substring(posVir+1)).length();
   lonPreVir=(data2.substring(0,posVir)).length();

   longu=data2.length();
   posVir=data2.indexOf(",");
   preVir=(data2.substring(0,posVir)).toFloat();
   postVir=(data2.substring(posVir+1)).toFloat();
   posvir2=postVir*pow(10,-lonPostVir);
   val=preVir+postVir*pow(10,-lonPostVir);

  Serial.println(val);

    }
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  • 3
    Serial.print only gives two decimal points. (Otherwise it would return 23.4589996337890625 as that is the closest float value that exists.) Commented Apr 12, 2015 at 15:14
  • Are you sure about that sir? Commented Apr 12, 2015 at 16:51
  • 1
    Sure about which of the two statements? Commented Apr 13, 2015 at 15:20
  • I confirm that 23.4589996337890625 (i.e. 12299272/2^19) is the float32 nearest to 23.459. Commented May 4, 2016 at 15:02

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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The simplest way to get more decimal places to print is this:

Serial.println(val,NUMBER_OF_DECMIAL_PLACES);

This will print out any number of digits after the decimal place. Regular print without the number of digits specified will default to 2 decimal places. for example, here is some code and the result that gets printed:

float val = 23.459;
Serial.println(val);
Serial.println(val, 4);
Serial.println(val, 10);

23.46

23.4590

23.4589996337

You may notice that with 10 decimal places printed you can start to see how much the actual value of 23.459 needs to be approximated to fit within a floating point number. This is similar to how 1/3 can not be represented 100% accurately in a finite number of decimal digits; 459/1000 cannot be represented 100% accurately in a finite number of binary bits, so it is approximated.

Also, note that for non-floating point numbers the optional second argument to print and println is the base it should be printed in (dec, hex, oct, ...) and has nothing to do with precision.

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Just write the amount of numbers you want to get float here Serial.println(val); after the val. example: Serial.println(val, 5); It will give 5 digits after the decimal point

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