MATLAB: Rounding using ‘fix’… possibly a bug

ceildecimalfix?floating pointfloorMATLABnot a bugroundrounding

Could someone tell me if this is a bug, or is there some logical reason 'fix' would round:
.3/.1 = 2
whereas
.4/.1 = 4
K>> fix(.3/.1)
ans =
     2
K>> fix(.4/.1)
ans =
     4
K>> fix(.7/.1)
ans =
     6
K>> fix(.5/.1)
ans =
     5

Best Answer

To see what is going on you can examine the exact floating point values. Note that none of your original numbers except 0.5 can be represented in IEEE double format exactly:
>> num2strexact(.7)
ans =
0.6999999999999999555910790149937383830547332763671875
>> num2strexact(.5)
ans =
0.5
>> num2strexact(.4)
ans =
0.40000000000000002220446049250313080847263336181640625
>> num2strexact(.3)
ans =
0.299999999999999988897769753748434595763683319091796875
>> num2strexact(.1)
ans =
0.1000000000000000055511151231257827021181583404541015625
>> num2strexact(.7/.1)
ans =
6.99999999999999911182158029987476766109466552734375
>> num2strexact(.5/.1)
ans =
5
>> num2strexact(.4/.1)
ans =
4
>> num2strexact(.3/.1)
ans =
2.999999999999999555910790149937383830547332763671875
You can find num2strexact here:
http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/22239-num2strexact-exact-version-of-num2str
Related Question