Click to Rate and Give Feedback
MSDN
MSDN Library
.NET Development
.NET Framework 3.5
System Namespace
Double Structure
Double Fields
 Epsilon Field

  Switch on low bandwidth view
This page is specific to
Microsoft Visual Studio 2008/.NET Framework 3.5

Other versions are also available for the following:
.NET Framework Class Library
Double..::.Epsilon Field

Represents the smallest positive Double value greater than zero. This field is constant.

Namespace:  System
Assembly:  mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)
Visual Basic (Declaration)
Public Const Epsilon As Double
Visual Basic (Usage)
Dim value As Double

value = Double.Epsilon
C#
public const double Epsilon
Visual C++
public:
literal double Epsilon
JScript
public const var Epsilon : double

The value of this constant is 4.94065645841247e-324.

Two apparently equivalent floating-point numbers might not compare equal because of differences in their least significant digits. For example, the C# expression, (double)1/3 == (double)0.33333, does not compare equal because the division operation on the left side has maximum precision while the constant on the right side is precise only to the specified digits. If you create a custom algorithm that determines whether two floating-point numbers can be considered equal, you must use a value that is greater than the Epsilon constant to establish the acceptable absolute margin of difference for the two values to be considered equal. (Typically, that margin of difference is many times greater than Epsilon.)

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP Starter Edition, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98, Windows CE, Windows Mobile for Smartphone, Windows Mobile for Pocket PC, Xbox 360, Zune

The .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework do not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.

.NET Framework

Supported in: 3.5, 3.0, 2.0, 1.1, 1.0

.NET Compact Framework

Supported in: 3.5, 2.0, 1.0

XNA Framework

Supported in: 3.0, 2.0, 1.0
Tags What's this?: Add a tag
Community Content   What is Community Content?
Add new content RSS  Annotations
Cannot be used for "almost equality" testing      Peter Ritchie ... Thomas Lee   |   Edit   |   Show History
This value is not defined as smallest positive number x, such that x + 1.0 is not equal to 1.0, so Double.Epsilon cannot be used for "almost equality". There exists no constant in the framework whose value is smallest positive number x, such that x + 1.0 is not equal to 1.0.
Processing
© 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Terms of Use  |  Trademarks  |  Privacy Statement
Page view tracker