Decimal Explicit Conversion (Decimal to Single)

.NET Framework (current version)

equivalentCodeEntityM:System.Decimal.ToSingle(System.Decimal)

Defines an explicit conversion of a Decimal to a single-precision floating-point number.

Namespace: System
Assembly: mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)

Syntax

public:
static explicit operator float (
	Decimal value
)

Parameters

value: Type: System::Decimal
The value to convert.

Return Value

Type: System::Single

A single-precision floating-point number that represents the converted Decimal.

Remarks

This operation can result in a loss of precision, because a single-precision floating-point number has fewer significant digits than a Decimal.

This operator supports the explicit conversion of a Decimal to a Single. The syntax for such explicit conversions is language-dependent, and individual language compilers can provide different implementations and return different results. The example illustrates the different return values when you explicitly convert a Decimal value to a Single value by using C# and Visual Basic. To perform a conversion that is independent of language, you can call the ToSingle or the Convert::ToSingle(Decimal) method.

Examples

The following example converts Decimal numbers to Single values by using the explicit Decimal to Single conversion.

C++

using namespace System;

void main()
{
   // Define an array of Decimal values.
   array<Decimal>^ values = { Decimal::Parse("0.0000000000000000000000000001"), 
                              Decimal::Parse("0.0000000000123456789123456789"),
                              Decimal::Parse("123"), 
                              Decimal(123000000, 0, 0, false, 6),
                              Decimal::Parse("123456789.123456789"), 
                              Decimal::Parse("123456789123456789123456789"), 
                              Decimal::MinValue, Decimal::MaxValue };
   // Convert each value to a double.
   for each (Decimal value in values) {
       float dblValue = (float) value;
       Console::WriteLine("{0} ({1}) --> {2} ({3})", value,
                          value.GetType()->Name, dblValue, 
                          dblValue.GetType()->Name);
   }
}
// The example displays the following output:
//    0.0000000000000000000000000001 (Decimal) --> 1E-28 (Single)
//    0.0000000000123456789123456789 (Decimal) --> 1.234568E-11 (Single)
//    123 (Decimal) --> 123 (Single)
//    123.000000 (Decimal) --> 123 (Single)
//    123456789.123456789 (Decimal) --> 1.234568E+08 (Single)
//    123456789123456789123456789 (Decimal) --> 1.234568E+26 (Single)
//    -79228162514264337593543950335 (Decimal) --> -7.922816E+28 (Single)
//    79228162514264337593543950335 (Decimal) --> 7.922816E+28 (Single)

Version Information

Universal Windows Platform
Available since 8
.NET Framework
Available since 1.1
Portable Class Library
Supported in: portable .NET platforms
Silverlight
Available since 2.0
Windows Phone Silverlight
Available since 7.0
Windows Phone
Available since 8.1