# Storing high precision constants to use with fixed precision libraries (DoubleFloats.jl, Quadmath.jl, DecFP.jl, etc.)

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/storing-high-precision-constants-to-use-with-fixed-precision-libraries-doublefloats-jl-quadmath-jl-decfp-jl-etc/90967>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Tags:** math, bigfloat\
**Created:** [November 28, 2022, 9:23pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/storing-high-precision-constants-to-use-with-fixed-precision-libraries-doublefloats-jl-quadmath-jl-decfp-jl-etc/90967 "2022-11-28T21:23:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![heltonmc](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/heltonmc/32/43044_2.png) [@heltonmc](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/heltonmc)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2022, 9:23pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/storing-high-precision-constants-to-use-with-fixed-precision-libraries-doublefloats-jl-quadmath-jl-decfp-jl-etc/90967/1 "2022-11-28T21:23:38Z")

</div>

I am hoping to design algorithms that can be used efficiently with other fixed higher precision libraries such as [DoubleFloats.jl](https://github.com/JuliaMath/DoubleFloats.jl), [Quadmath.jl](https://github.com/JuliaMath/Quadmath.jl), [DecFP.jl](https://github.com/JuliaMath/DecFP.jl), [MultiFloats.jl](https://github.com/dzhang314/MultiFloats.jl), etc… This usually involves polynomial approximations to a designated precision (128, 256). Is there a flexible way to store high precision coefficients to be used with all of these libraries?

For example, ideally something like this would work…

```julia
function test(x::T) where T
    # strings usually contain 30-50 digits
    P = (parse(T, "1.2"), parse(T, "1.3"), parse(T, "1.4"), parse(T, "1.5"))
    return evalpoly(x, P)
end

```

with benchmarks…

```julia
julia> @btime test(x) setup=(x=Float128(rand()))
  330.556 ns (0 allocations: 0 bytes)
1.36276565872626782310144123826112398e+00

julia> @btime test(x) setup=(x=Dec128(rand()))
  781.630 ns (0 allocations: 0 bytes)
3.119328959904789231759682793174765

# allocates for some reason
julia> @btime test(x) setup=(x=Double64(rand()))
  1.258 μs (20 allocations: 848 bytes)
2.2168204194286036

```

But we are paying the cost to parse the strings. A solution to avoid this is to just hard code the constants in a higher precision…

```julia
const P_f128 = (parse(Float128, "1.2"), parse(Float128, "1.3"), parse(Float128, "1.4"), parse(Float128, "1.5"))

function test2(x)
    return evalpoly(x, P_f128)
end

julia> @btime test2(x) setup=(x=Float128(rand()))
  71.869 ns (0 allocations: 0 bytes)
2.02825985806247608356097004488423765e+00

```

This approach works well and fast but a little less flexible than I was hoping for as it requires hard coding the constants for a specific package (and take it on as a dependency.) You could also cast any `AbstractFloat` to whatever internal precision you use but slightly less flexible.

Is there perhaps a good approach to be flexible enough to handle all the different higher precision packages in the current and future ecosystem but also avoid allocations and parsing of string constants during runtime?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![stevengj](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stevengj/32/71_2.png) [@stevengj](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/stevengj)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2022, 9:27pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/storing-high-precision-constants-to-use-with-fixed-precision-libraries-doublefloats-jl-quadmath-jl-decfp-jl-etc/90967/2 "2022-11-28T21:27:41Z")

</div>

> [@heltonmc](#):
>
> This usually involves polynomial approximations to a designated precision (128, 256). Is there a flexible way to store high precision coefficients to be used with all of these libraries?

If the numerator and denominator are small enough you could use rationals:

```julia
function test(x::T) where T
    P = T.((12//10, 13//10, 14//10, 15//10))
    return evalpoly(x, P)
end

```

The nice thing is that in many cases the compiler can do the conversion at compile time (as of [JuliaLang/julia#41258](https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/pull/41258)).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![heltonmc](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/heltonmc/32/43044_2.png) [@heltonmc](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/heltonmc)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2022, 9:37pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/storing-high-precision-constants-to-use-with-fixed-precision-libraries-doublefloats-jl-quadmath-jl-decfp-jl-etc/90967/3 "2022-11-28T21:37:30Z")

</div>

Thank you! There are times where we know the exact coefficients so this works well (as long as the Integer fits nicely with Int128). I like the idea using rationals, but sometimes terms look like this…

```julia

function test(x)
    return evalpoly(x, (1990919576929585163761247434580873723897677550573731281207275390625, -1094071724893410272201314846735800345180930752601602224440504638671875, 103359845691236916270005420886293061281368263471845448279855946394531250, -3993558675585831919973605001813276532326292885934464373884268722794718750, 83832389176247515253189196480455786065824463879054932596114704927571390625, -1101977288759423115916484463959767795703317649005495798822550381533967842875, 9865413224996821913093061266347613112205666995211786544733850490740903131000, -63509799534443193918054738326913581450607131662586232327271654588312820660616, 305080179205137176095342856930260393560550505786421683990077008259370104309410, -1122099959965657526344757894103766710826629020929459670948834078441128579791750, 3217185258543282976637373169047731813093578126603884759856059695249999306047500, -7276835259402589085458442196686990645669654847254510877738804991391058411412500, 13076651508858985557227319801010895818335803028865299751194038965212274849406250, -18719023753854332443081892087572754119280558462994056787647908433841920235468750, 21307327225910629020600045595173860611314592374884901403059587980149276271875000, -19156728115567236234371593788102013666866274144599851347429312225076676478125000, 13430107219321888006291381503763318985372222835071804983658005207838642173828125, -7186150593017474773099947110903785965879266917528290917207712073663895771484375, 2834031566467842832851805860262261718160136985649155528263587796394390332031250, -776308737033643856044315139790308583914612827783322139063211433790569824218750, 131897976398031751060811874321878385924211075364673046295410087596954345703125, -10468093364923154846096180501736379835254847251164527483762705364837646484375)) / 5456052820246562178600318839637653652351064473600000000
end

```

so we get the promotion to `BigInt` first. Of course, this is when our coefficients are known exactly but higher order terms usually require at least `Int256` to store…

So I guess there are really two instances I’m looking at. 1. Where we know the higher order coefficients exactly as integers (usually fit within `Int256`) and 2. Where we just know the minimax floating point number in high precision (usually a `Float128` number).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![stevengj](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stevengj/32/71_2.png) [@stevengj](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/stevengj)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2022, 9:55pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/storing-high-precision-constants-to-use-with-fixed-precision-libraries-doublefloats-jl-quadmath-jl-decfp-jl-etc/90967/4 "2022-11-28T21:55:41Z")

</div>

> [@heltonmc](#):
>
> Where we just know the minimax floating point number in high precision (usually a `Float128` number).

In this case you could write it as `T(significand) * exp2(T(exponent))`, using an `Int128` `significand`, at the cost of an `exp2` call.