You could re-invent the wheel, as many other answers suggest. Alternately, you could use someone else's wheel -- I'd suggest Newlib's, which is BSD-licensed and intended for use on embedded systems. It properly handles negative numbers, NaNs, infinities, and cases which are not representable as integers (due to being too large), as well as doing so in an efficient manner that uses exponents and masking rather than generally-costlier floating-point operations. In addition, it's regularly tested, so you know it doesn't have glaring corner-case bugs in it.
The Newlib source can be a bit awkward to navigate, so here are the bits you want:
Float version: https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=newlib-cygwin.git;a=blob;f=newlib/libm/common/sf_round.c;hb=master
Double version: https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=newlib-cygwin.git;a=blob;f=newlib/libm/common/s_round.c;hb=master
Word-extraction macros defined here: https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=newlib-cygwin.git;a=blob;f=newlib/libm/common/fdlibm.h;hb=master
If you need other files from there, the parent directory is this one: https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=newlib-cygwin.git;a=tree;f=newlib/libm/common;hb=master
For the record, here's the code for the float version. As you can see, there's a bit of complexity required to deal with all the possible cases correctly.
float roundf(x)
{
int signbit;
__uint32_t w;
/* Most significant word, least significant word. */
int exponent_less_127;
GET_FLOAT_WORD(w, x);
/* Extract sign bit. */
signbit = w & 0x80000000;
/* Extract exponent field. */
exponent_less_127 = (int)((w & 0x7f800000) >> 23) - 127;
if (exponent_less_127 < 23)
{
if (exponent_less_127 < 0)
{
w &= 0x80000000;
if (exponent_less_127 == -1)
/* Result is +1.0 or -1.0. */
w |= ((__uint32_t)127 << 23);
}
else
{
unsigned int exponent_mask = 0x007fffff >> exponent_less_127;
if ((w & exponent_mask) == 0)
/* x has an integral value. */
return x;
w += 0x00400000 >> exponent_less_127;
w &= ~exponent_mask;
}
}
else
{
if (exponent_less_127 == 128)
/* x is NaN or infinite. */
return x + x;
else
return x;
}
SET_FLOAT_WORD(x, w);
return x;
}
Answer from Brooks Moses on Stack Overflowmath - Concise way to implement round() in C? - Stack Overflow
Rounding in C
rounding - How to round floating point numbers to the nearest integer in C? - Stack Overflow
How to round to the nearest integer?
Videos
You could re-invent the wheel, as many other answers suggest. Alternately, you could use someone else's wheel -- I'd suggest Newlib's, which is BSD-licensed and intended for use on embedded systems. It properly handles negative numbers, NaNs, infinities, and cases which are not representable as integers (due to being too large), as well as doing so in an efficient manner that uses exponents and masking rather than generally-costlier floating-point operations. In addition, it's regularly tested, so you know it doesn't have glaring corner-case bugs in it.
The Newlib source can be a bit awkward to navigate, so here are the bits you want:
Float version: https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=newlib-cygwin.git;a=blob;f=newlib/libm/common/sf_round.c;hb=master
Double version: https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=newlib-cygwin.git;a=blob;f=newlib/libm/common/s_round.c;hb=master
Word-extraction macros defined here: https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=newlib-cygwin.git;a=blob;f=newlib/libm/common/fdlibm.h;hb=master
If you need other files from there, the parent directory is this one: https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=newlib-cygwin.git;a=tree;f=newlib/libm/common;hb=master
For the record, here's the code for the float version. As you can see, there's a bit of complexity required to deal with all the possible cases correctly.
float roundf(x)
{
int signbit;
__uint32_t w;
/* Most significant word, least significant word. */
int exponent_less_127;
GET_FLOAT_WORD(w, x);
/* Extract sign bit. */
signbit = w & 0x80000000;
/* Extract exponent field. */
exponent_less_127 = (int)((w & 0x7f800000) >> 23) - 127;
if (exponent_less_127 < 23)
{
if (exponent_less_127 < 0)
{
w &= 0x80000000;
if (exponent_less_127 == -1)
/* Result is +1.0 or -1.0. */
w |= ((__uint32_t)127 << 23);
}
else
{
unsigned int exponent_mask = 0x007fffff >> exponent_less_127;
if ((w & exponent_mask) == 0)
/* x has an integral value. */
return x;
w += 0x00400000 >> exponent_less_127;
w &= ~exponent_mask;
}
}
else
{
if (exponent_less_127 == 128)
/* x is NaN or infinite. */
return x + x;
else
return x;
}
SET_FLOAT_WORD(x, w);
return x;
}
int round(double x)
{
if (x < 0.0)
return (int)(x - 0.5);
else
return (int)(x + 0.5);
}
I have a question when it comes to rounding in C. Does it round up or down at .5? If it does round up, then does that mean that the smallest value of k in the code below can only be 1?
int main()
{
int k = 13;
int i;
for (i = 0; i < 8; i++) {
printf("%d", (k%2));
k >>= 1;
}
printf("%n");
}To round a float in C, there are 3 <math.h> functions to meet the need. Recommend rintf().
float nearbyintf(float x);
The
nearbyintfunctions round their argument to an integer value in floating-point format, using the current rounding direction and without raising the ‘‘inexact’’ floating point exception. C11dr §7.12.9.3 2
or
float rintf(float x);
The
rintfunctions differ from thenearbyintfunctions (7.12.9.3) only in that therintfunctions may raise the ‘‘inexact’’ floating-point exception if the result differs in value from the argument. C11dr §7.12.9.4 2
or
float roundf(float x);
The
roundfunctions round their argument to the nearest integer value in floating-point format, rounding halfway cases away from zero, regardless of the current rounding direction. C11dr §7.12.9.6 2
Example
#include <fenv.h>
#include <math.h>
#include <stdio.h>
void rtest(const char *fname, double (*f)(double x), double x) {
printf("Clear inexact flag :%s\n", feclearexcept(FE_INEXACT) ? "Fail" : "Success");
printf("Set round to nearest mode:%s\n", fesetround(FE_TONEAREST) ? "Fail" : "Success");
double y = (*f)(x);
printf("%s(%f) --> %f\n", fname,x,y);
printf("Inexact flag :%s\n", fetestexcept(FE_INEXACT) ? "Inexact" : "Exact");
puts("");
}
int main(void) {
double x = 8.5;
rtest("nearbyint", nearbyint, x);
rtest("rint", rint, x);
rtest("round", round, x);
return 0;
}
Output
Clear inexact flag :Success
Set round to nearest mode:Success
nearbyint(8.500000) --> 8.000000
Inexact flag :Exact
Clear inexact flag :Success
Set round to nearest mode:Success
rint(8.500000) --> 8.000000
Inexact flag :Inexact
Clear inexact flag :Success
Set round to nearest mode:Success
round(8.500000) --> 9.000000
Inexact flag :Exact
What is weak about OP's code?
(int)(num < 0 ? (num - 0.5) : (num + 0.5))
Should
numhave a value not near theintrange, the cast(int)results in undefined behavior.When
num +/- 0.5results in an inexact answer. This is unlikely here as0.5is adoublecausing the addition to occur at a higher precision thanfloat. Whennumand0.5have the same precision, adding0.5to a number may result in numerical rounded answer. (This is not the whole number rounding of OP's post.) Example: the number just less than 0.5 should round to 0 per OP's goal, yetnum + 0.5results in an exact answer between 1.0 and the smallestdoublejust less than 1.0. Since the exact answer is not representable, that sum rounds, typically to 1.0 leading to an incorrect answer. A similar situation occurs with large numbers.
OP's dilemma about "The above line always prints the value as 4 even when float num =4.9." is not explainable as stated. Additional code/information is needed. I suspect OP may have used int num = 4.9;.
// avoid all library calls
// Relies on UINTMAX_MAX >= FLT_MAX_CONTINUOUS_INTEGER - 1
float my_roundf(float x) {
// Test for large values of x
// All of the x values are whole numbers and need no rounding
#define FLT_MAX_CONTINUOUS_INTEGER (FLT_RADIX/FLT_EPSILON)
if (x >= FLT_MAX_CONTINUOUS_INTEGER) return x;
if (x <= -FLT_MAX_CONTINUOUS_INTEGER) return x;
// Positive numbers
// Important: _no_ precision lost in the subtraction
// This is the key improvement over OP's method
if (x > 0) {
float floor_x = (float)(uintmax_t) x;
if (x - floor_x >= 0.5) floor_x += 1.0f;
return floor_x;
}
if (x < 0) return -my_roundf(-x);
return x; // x is 0.0, -0.0 or NaN
}
Tested little - will do so later when I have time.
4.9 + 0.5 is 5.4, which cannot possibly round to 4 unless your compiler is seriously broken.
I just confirmed that the Googled code gives the correct answer for 4.9.
marcelo@macbookpro-1:~$ cat round.c
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
float num = 4.9;
int n = (int)(num < 0 ? (num - 0.5) : (num + 0.5));
printf("%d\n", n);
}
marcelo@macbookpro-1:~$ make round && ./round
cc round.c -o round
5
marcelo@macbookpro-1:~$
I would like to round a double to the nearest integer. The function round() returns a double, but I need an actual int. I am afraid that if I do something like (int) round(4.7), the closest float to 5 may be 4.999999999, which the typecast to int would truncate to 4.
What is a good way of rounding to the nearest int?