Bitwise Operations on Floating-Point Numbers: Why Ints But Not Floats?

In C/C , bitwise operations are explicitly defined for integral types, but not for floating-point numbers. When attempting to perform bitwise operations on a float, as seen in the initial code snippet, compilers will flag an error.

Why the Casting Trick Doesn't Work

Casting a float to an int allows the bitwise operation to be performed because it converts the float to its 32-bit integer representation. However, this representation is obtained by rounding off the float, leading to a loss of precision and potential inaccuracies in the operation.

The same issue arises if float is cast to void because void can hold any type of data, including integers. However, it doesn't provide the necessary context for the bitwise operation to be performed on the actual binary representation of the float without introducing errors.

Understanding the Bitwise Limitation

At the language level, floating-point numbers do not have a defined bit-level representation. Their value is represented using a different mechanism called the floating-point format. This format is implementation-dependent and may vary across different systems and compilers.

Therefore, performing bitwise operations on floating-point numbers directly is not supported and cannot yield meaningful results. It is essential to use alternative methods, such as union conversions or accessing the raw memory content, to analyze the bit patterns of floating-point numbers.