[perl #126502] Storable Alters Floating Point Number?

# New Ticket Created by  masterchiefaragorn 
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Hi,

I don't know if this is an issue with Storable or with Perl itself, but when I compare two identical floating points together, they compare correctly.  However, when I freeze() and thaw() them, they do not.

I am familiar with the dynamics of how floating points are stored, so that's not the issue.  The issue is that Storable slightly alters an SvPVNV in a way that it doesn't compare like it used to.  Here's the code (this is on Perl 5.18 and Storable 2.51):

    use 5.018001;
    use warnings;
    use Math::Round qw(nearest);
    use Storable qw(freeze thaw);

    my $a = nearest(.01,-656.8);
    my $b = nearest(.01,-656.8);
    if ($a eq 'qwer') {} # this upgrades $a to an SvPVNV
    say '' . ($a == $b ? 'EQUAL' : 'NOT EQUAL');

    my $c = thaw(freeze(\$a)); # here Storable alters the SvPVNV so that it compares incorrectly
    my $d = thaw(freeze(\$b));
    say '' . ($c == $d ? 'EQUAL' : 'NOT EQUAL');

OUTPUT:

    EQUAL
    NOT EQUAL


(NOTE: I know that '==' is unreliable for comparing floating point numbers, and that doing a nearest(.01,$a) eq nearest(.01,$b) is a more reliable way to solve this.  Regardless, I still think this might be a bug folks would want addressed?)

• [perl #126502] Storable Alters Floating Point Number? by masterchiefaragorn
• Re: [perl #126502] Storable Alters Floating Point Number? by Zefram
• [perl #126502] Storable Alters Floating Point Number? by masterchiefaragorn via RT
• [perl #126502] Storable Alters Floating Point Number? by Tony Cook via RT