Fractional Exponents in pow()

[rontarrant]

I think it would be handy to have fractional exponents in GDScript's pow() method. Python allows them; C# does, too. And even though we can mix C# with GDScript to bring the functionality of fractional exponents to the latter, it would be nice to use pure GDScript instead.

I know I'm not making a very strong argument for this, but maybe it's not such a big deal to implement?

[miv391]

You already can use floats as exponent. pow(9, 0.5) returns 3.

[rontarrant]

It doesn't work with an exponent of (1 / 12) or the decimal equivalent thereof. I'm guessing this is related to the fact that Godot uses single-precision floating point numbers (as opposed to double-precision).

…

On Sat, Aug 6, 2022 at 8:19 AM miv391 ***@***.***> wrote: You already can use floats as exponent. pow(9, 0.5) returns 3. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#5087 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ALCET5YHC4HFUVRVMNRD7IDVXZJ3XANCNFSM55YIEJBQ> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.*** .com>

[Calinou]

Double-precision floats can be enabled with the float=64 SCons option in 4.0.alpha, but this requires compiling your own editor and export template binaries. This is also not available in 3.x.

[miv391]

Do you have an example which returns an incorrect value? I tried a few powers of 1/12 with Godot v3.4.4 and got the same results as my old calculator does.

[rontarrant]

I think I figured it out: mixed types. If an int is tossed into an equation with a float, the result seems to be downgraded to an int. I haven't 100% verified this yet, but for the mortgage calculator I'm working on, it does hold true.