Difference between Python float and numpy float32

41
votes

What is the difference between the built in float and numpy.float32?

Example

a = 58682.7578125
print type(a)
print a
print type(numpy.float32(a))
print numpy.float32(a)

Output:

<type 'float'>
58682.7578125
<type 'numpy.float32'>
58682.8

I've found here that numpy.float32 is:

float32 Single precision float: sign bit, 8 bits exponent, 23 bits mantissa

didn't find what the built in float format is.

1
pythonnumpy
In your example float_32 = np.float32(a);print(float_32 == a) prints True - ?? - Mr_and_Mrs_D

1 Answers

40
votes

Python's standard float type is a C double: http://docs.python.org/2/library/stdtypes.html#typesnumeric

NumPy's standard numpy.float is the same, and is also the same as numpy.float64.