[Tutor] Need help with rewriting script to use Decimal module

[Dick Moores]

At 10:39 AM 1/2/2007, Kent Johnson wrote:
>Dick Moores wrote:
>>from decimal import Decimal as D
>>def bestFracForMinimumError(decimal, minimumError):
>>      denom = 0
>>      while True:
>>          denom += 1
>>          num = round(D(str(decimal)) * D(str(denom)))
>>          error = abs(str((str(D(num) / D(str(denom))) -
>This looks backwards        ^^^^^^^^^^

Thanks for catching that.


>Don't you need D(str(num)) ? Then converting it back to a str before 
>you call abs will not work.
>
>Your old approach of
>def D(num):
>   return Decimal(str(num))
>
>would probably make for more readable code and fewer errors.

Yes, I went back to it.

>I'm not sure this approach will work, though, if you are trying to 
>get higher precision, I would think you would have to do all the 
>calculations in Decimal, not going to floats for num. I admit I 
>haven't thought it through, though. I think you can use 
>Decimal.quantize() instead of round().

Thanks very much, Kent. You got me back on track.

Dick