NAME
    "Encode::Float" - Encode/decode float as a string for sorting.

SYNOPSIS
      use Encode::Float;
      my $encoder = Encode::Float->new();
      my @list;
      for (my $i = 0 ; $i < 10 ; $i++)
      {
        my $float = (.5 - rand) * 10**int(10 - 20 * rand);
        $float = 0 if $i == 0;
        my $encoded = $encoder->encode($float);
        my $decoded = $encoder->decode($encoded);
        my $error   = $encoder->getRelativeDifference($float, $decoded);
        push @list, [ $encoded, $float, $decoded, $error ];
      }
      @list = sort { $a->[0] cmp $b->[0] } @list;
      foreach (@list)
      {
        print join(',', @$_) . "\n";
      }

DESCRIPTION
    "Encode::Float" encodes and decodes floating point numbers as fixed
    length positive decimal integers that preserve their order (less
    rounding errors), that is, sorting the encoded integers also sorts the
    floating point numbers.

CONSTRUCTOR
  "new"
    The method "new" creates an instance of the "Encode::Float" class with
    the following parameter:

    "digitsOfAccuracy"
         digitsOfAccuracy => 16

        "digitsOfAccuracy" is an optional parameter that sets the number of
        decimal digits to preserve in the floating point number; the default
        is 16.

METHODS
  "encode"
    The method "encode" takes a floating point number as its only parameter
    and returns its integer encoding.

  "decode"
    The method "decode" takes an encoded floating point number (a positive
    integer) and returns its floating point number.

  "getRelativeDifference"
    The method "getRelativeDifference (floatA, floatB)" computes the
    relative difference between the floating point numbers "floatA" and
    "floatB", which is "abs(floatA - floatB)/max(abs(floatA), abs(floatB))"
    or zero if both numbers are zero.

INSTALLATION
    Use CPAN to install the module and all its prerequisites:

      perl -MCPAN -e shell
      >install Encode::Float

BUGS
    Please email bugs reports or feature requests to
    "bug-encode-float@rt.cpan.org", or through the web interface at
    <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Encode-Float>. The
    author will be notified and you can be automatically notified of
    progress on the bug fix or feature request.

AUTHOR
     Jeff Kubina<jeff.kubina@gmail.com>

COPYRIGHT
    Copyright (c) 2013 Jeff Kubina. All rights reserved. This program is
    free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same
    terms as Perl itself.

    The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included
    with this module.

KEYWORDS
    decoding, double, encoding, float

SEE ALSO
    CPAN, Sort::External