What is the range of the long double C++

Question

What is the range of long double in C++?

Answer 1

#include <limits>

std::numeric_limits<long double>::min()
//...
std::numeric_limits<long double>::max()

The definition of long double is compiler & platform dependent, it is at least the same as a double, thus, it may take 8, 12 (usually also for 80bits) or even 16 bytes (float128/quadruple precision) and has a range according to its size.

Answer 2

Use std::numeric_limits to find out.

Answer 3

It is system (and processor, and compiler, and ABI) dependent. Look into <limits.h> and <math.h> and <float.h> standard headers.

Answer 4

According to MSDN - Data Type Ranges (C++) and the www.cplusplus.com, the long double is the same as double, takes 8 bytes of space and lies in the range [-1.7E+308, 1.7E+308].

There are also other sites, like this, which says that long double takes 12 - 16 bytes.