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authorMark Dickinson <dickinsm@gmail.com>2010-08-04 18:42:43 (GMT)
committerMark Dickinson <dickinsm@gmail.com>2010-08-04 18:42:43 (GMT)
commit74f5902b045d582af36bf26a7a27d5e334a3f653 (patch)
tree5264c24b2f529fe34d5eda94e93137caeda3b06b /Doc
parent560f7647ce5991140e215a7ac775130798c92dc8 (diff)
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Issue #9498: Add reference to sys.float_info from 'numeric types' docs.
Thanks Yitz Gale.
Diffstat (limited to 'Doc')
-rw-r--r--Doc/library/stdtypes.rst17
1 files changed, 9 insertions, 8 deletions
diff --git a/Doc/library/stdtypes.rst b/Doc/library/stdtypes.rst
index 5f1b732..76921cd 100644
--- a/Doc/library/stdtypes.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/stdtypes.rst
@@ -217,14 +217,15 @@ Numeric Types --- :class:`int`, :class:`float`, :class:`complex`
There are three distinct numeric types: :dfn:`integers`, :dfn:`floating
point numbers`, and :dfn:`complex numbers`. In addition, Booleans are a
subtype of integers. Integers have unlimited precision. Floating point
-numbers are implemented using :ctype:`double` in C---all bets on their
-precision are off unless you happen to know the machine you are working
-with. Complex numbers have a real and imaginary part, which are each
-implemented using :ctype:`double` in C. To extract these parts from a
-complex number *z*, use ``z.real`` and ``z.imag``. (The standard library
-includes additional numeric types, :mod:`fractions` that hold rationals,
-and :mod:`decimal` that hold floating-point numbers with user-definable
-precision.)
+numbers are usually implemented using :ctype:`double` in C; information
+about the precision and internal representation of floating point
+numbers for the machine on which your program is running is available
+in :data:`sys.float_info`. Complex numbers have a real and imaginary
+part, which are each a floating point number. To extract these parts
+from a complex number *z*, use ``z.real`` and ``z.imag``. (The standard
+library includes additional numeric types, :mod:`fractions` that hold
+rationals, and :mod:`decimal` that hold floating-point numbers with
+user-definable precision.)
.. index::
pair: numeric; literals