Frequently, in my programming experience, I need to make a decision whether I should use floatfloat
or doubledouble
for my real numbers. Sometimes I go for floatfloat
, sometimes I go for doubledouble
, but really this feels more subjective. If I would be confronted to defend my decision, I would probably not give sound reasons.
When do you use floatfloat
and when do you use doubledouble
? Do you always use doubledouble
, only when memory constraints are present you go for floatfloat
? Or you use always floatuse float
unless the precision requirement requires you to use doubledouble
? Are there some substantial differences regarding the computational complexity of basic arithemticsarithmetics between floatfloat
and doubledouble
? What are the pros and cons of using floatfloat
or doubledouble
? And have you even used long doublelong double
?