Force float value (decimals)

[DistantJ]

OK here's a problem I'm having (I would put it in the MMF2 general section but nobody seems to reply in there, I'm much more fond of you guys in here )

I've created a perfectly working control customisation system which I'm willing to share as an example with people if you can help me sort this one feature out.

See, I have a controls frame in which the user can drag the virtual controls around the screen to the position they desire, and it saves their positions in INI items so that they stay in the user's chosen position for future playthroughs. I've also set up 'bigger' and 'smaller' buttons which allow the user to scale the buttons up or down, and to store the scale value inside the INI also. The only problem is that scale always uses a float value, with 1.0 being normal scale, 2.0 being double, 0.5 being half. On PC this works, I can store a float value (decimal) in the global values and inside of the INI, but on iOS it forces it to an integer, so once the player leaves the frame it's 'snapped' to the nearest full value. I've tried storing the scale value *100, then setting the scale to the stored value /100, but the expression still results in an integer.

Since the iOS runtime doesn't seem to want to store float values in global values (and potentially not in INIs either, not sure if it's the INI or the global value or both causing the problem), I am sure I need to use the scale*100 => value/100 method, so how do I ensure that an expression returns a float (decimal) value and not an integer (whole number)?

[Francois]

I just checked the code to be sure. Global value accept floating point numbers. Are you sure they are not converted to int in your calculations later?

[DistantJ]

Well, it works on the PC but not on the iPhone. Perhaps the INI doesn't store float values on iOS?

[DistantJ]

OK here's the problem with getting around it...

This expression, for example:

320/100

Will always return 3.

I need to get it to return 3.2.

I've tried using:

0.0+(320/100)

But that still returns 3.

I want to get around the issue by storing the scale as a percentage (scale*100) and then dividing it by 100 to get it precise.

Starting to think using *0.01 instead of /100 might be the solution...

[StingRay]

Try (320/100)*1.0

[DistantJ]

Got it. 320*0.01 did the trick.

[Anders]

MMF2 does the calculations in parenthesis first. If you have a parenthesis that only contains integer math then it will only do integer division and give that result to the rest of the expression.
This would work too: 320/100.0

[AndyH]

I tend to use the method Andos has posted above - for any multiplications or divisions with constant values. I also use either 0.0+ or *1.0 within the order of precedence when problems arise.

Francois/Andos - does INI allow floating point values to be stored? DistantJ, you could possibly convert the number to a string to store in the INI as another alternative?

[Anders]

I remember that the INI object didn't support it on PC at least. I don't know if it does now.
Anyways, it doesn't look like iOS supports writing floating point numbers right now, but there is always the workaround (as AndyH pointed out) of converting them to strings first and then store them that way (as strings).
The performance should be the same. I will check if the PC version works the same way, otherwise we will change it.

[ffomega]

I am having a similar problem.

I am using INI++ on my PC along with Common Dialogue Object. It saves a decimal just fine, but when I try to load the decimal back into a global value it only returns an integer.

I tried sending the value to a string...
I tried x/100
I tried 0.0+x/100
I tried x*0.01
I tried running a debug window and watching the values change at runtime and it always returns an integer, even with floating decimals of up to 4 places and they all return an integer. All I can do is successfully store a decimal inside an .ini file, but can only retrieve its whole number.

The problem seems to occur when I load an INI file using the common dialogue object's open dialogue box