Types¶

Fixed Point Numbers¶

Warning

Lity supports fixed point numbers after lity v1.2.6.

Keywords are fixedMxN for signed fixed point numbers, and ufixedMxN for unsigned fixed point numbers. M is the number of bits used by the type, and N is the number of fractional points. M should be a number in [8, 256] which is divisible by 8, and N is a positive integer that fits in an uint32.

ufixed and fixed are aliases to ufixed128x18 and fixed128x18 respectively.

Grammar¶

SignedFixed   = 'fixed' ( [0-9]+ 'x' [0-9]+ )?
UnsignedFixed = 'ufixed' ( [0-9]+ 'x' [0-9]+ )?

Operators¶

Arithmetics: binary +, binary -, unary +, unary -, *, /, %
Comparisons: <=, <, ==, !=, >=, >
Conversions: see Conversions between Literals and Fixed Point Types.

Arithmetic operators may cause implicit truncation.

Definition¶

Take a look at Wikipedia’s explanation for the definition of fixed point numbers.

You may check the ranges of some fixed point types listed below to better understand the concept of fixed point numbers.

Type	Range
`ufixed8x1`	`[0.0, 25.5]`
`ufixed8x8`	`[0.00000000, 0.00000255]`
`fixed16x2`	`[-327.68, 32767]`
`fixed16x7`	`[-0.0032768, 0.0032767]`

Conversions between Literals and Fixed Point Types¶

Decimal literals can be converted to the target fixed point type only if it fits into N bits.

Implcit Conversion¶

Decimal literals can be converted to fixed point types implicitly if no truncation occurred.

ufixed8x2 a = 1.1; // rational 11/10 to ufixed8x2, ok
fixed8x1 sa = 1.1; // rational 11/10 to fixed8x1, ok

ufixed8x2 b = 9.9; // rational 99/10 to ufixed8x2 [0.00, 2.55], fail

Explcit Conversion¶

When truncation will occur, explicit conversion is required.

ufixed16x2 pi = ufixed16x2(3.1415926535); // truncated to 3.14

Not Convertible¶

A TypeError is raised when the literal does not fit into N bits even if using explcit conversion.

// store 2.56 into ufixed8x1 [0.0, 25.5] results in TypeError
ufixed8x1 a = 25.6;
ufixed8x1 b = ufixed8x1(25.6);

Conversions between Different Fixed Point Types¶

Explicit conversion is also required between different fixed point types if it might cause truncation.

ufixed16x2 pi2 = 3.14;
ufixed16x4 pie = ufixed16x4(pi2); // still 3.14 but need explicit conversion

Warning

Conversions that causes overflow or underflow of fixed point types is currently undefined.

fixed8x1 a = -1.0;
fixed8x1 b = -0.1;
ufixed8x1 ua = ufixed8x1(a); // undefined
ufixed8x1 ub = ufixed8x1(b); // undefined

Truncations¶

If a fixed point number has more than N digits after its decimal point, all digits after the N-th digit are truncated.

Todo

Add some examples here.

ABI Types¶

fixedMxN for signed fixed point numbers, and ufixedMxN for unsigned fixed point numbers. The definition of M and N are the same as those in the definition of Lity fixed point numbers.

Compatibility with Solidity¶

Fixed point numbers are not fully supported in Solidity yet. The range of fractional points N in Solidity is currently [0, 80] (see Solidity’s documentation for fixed point numbers). There’s a discussion to change it to [0, 77] here at #4061.