is int(round(val)) safe?

[Peter Hansen]

Russell E. Owen wrote:
> I realize this probably a stupid question, but...is it safe to 
> round to the nearest integer by using int(round(val))?

Define "safe".

> I suspect it is fine, but wanted to be sure that weird floating point 
> representation on some platform might make it unsafe there (i.e. get the 
> wrong value due to the floating point value being an approximation) and 
> if so, is there a Better Way).

Since round() returns an integer, and since (ignoring really
large integers, since I doubt you're concerned about them
here) floating point values can handle *integer* values
perfectly well, there's no reason it shouldn't do what you
want.

The problem* with floating point is inaccurate representation
of certain _fractional_ values, not integer values.

-Peter

* Well, _one_ of the problems. ;-)