Re: Serializing xsd:decimal, xsd:float, xsd:double

David,

Thank you for your comment on serializing xsd:decimal, xsd:float, 
xsd:double.

XSD defines the operations for these datatypes including rules for 
precision.  For xsd:decimal, the precision required is:

[[ http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema11-2/
All ·minimally conforming· processors must support decimal values whose 
absolute value  can be expressed as i / 10k, where i and k are 
nonnegative integers such  that i < 1016 and k ≤ 16 (i.e., those 
expressible with sixteen total digits).
]]

[[ http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-2/
Note:  All ·minimally conforming· processors ·must· support decimal 
numbers with a minimum of 18 decimal digits
]]

SPARQL uses the work of XQuery/XPath Functions and Operators and the 
requirements for handling these numeric datatypes derive from that body 
of work.  The SPARQL specification links to each operator required.

RDF defines a literal as a lexical form and a datatype.  It does not 
consider the datatype to modify the behavior of forming the RDF literal.

The working group is not planning to make any changes in this area.

I would be grateful if you reply to this message to confirm that the 
working group has responded to your comment.

Yours, on behalf of the SPARQL Working Group,

 Andy


On 20/07/12 16:19, David Booth wrote:
> It is currently difficult to compare the results of two different SPARQL
> servers when xsd:decimal, xsd:float or xsd:double are used, because
> there does not seem to be any standard way to control the number of
> decimal places that are serialized.  For example, if the decimal
> 0.049508196721311475409836 is computed, one server may serialize this as
>
>    "0.0495081967"^^xsd:decimal
>
> and another may serialize it as
>
>    "0.050"^^xsd:decimal
>
> One might (erroneously) attempt to round both of the serialized values
> to one decimal place in order to compare them, but if they have already
> been rounded once before serialization (as above) then this won't work,
> because 0.050 rounds to 0.1, while 0.0495081967 rounds to 0.0.
>
> I think the SPARQL standard should provide some "SHOULD" guidance, such
> as specifying that a SPARLQ server SHOULD (by default) serialize a
> specified number of decimal places (perhaps all available), and MAY
> provide a standard means of controlling the number of decimal places
> that are serialized.
>
> If it is too late in the WG process to consider this for SPARQL 1.1 (and
> I assume it is) then please add this to the wish list for the next
> version.
>
> Thanks!
>

Received on Tuesday, 31 July 2012 08:05:35 UTC