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03-21-19, 05:19 AM   #1
Cogwerkz
A Deviate Faerie Dragon
AddOn Author - Click to view addons
Join Date: Jul 2017
Posts: 12
Possible bug with %d in all format strings

So consider the following image here:



What I was trying to do was to show an integer in a string using fontstring:SetFormattedText() and %d. And for some reason it keeps returning the wrong value. The second value in my debug output is the value I put into the format string. And it just displays as something else.

The value I at first put into SetFormattedText was the calculation itself, and I wondered if that in some way was the issue. I then attempted to debug it by outputting the value, the result of the calculation (multiply by 100), and a string.format with the finished value put into a %d inside a string. And still 130 would turn into 129 when shown on screen.

I mean... really? Am I this dumb, am I missing something super obvious?

THEN... I tried replacing the %d with a %.0f, a floating point with no decimals. Still the same parameters put into the string.format function, I just changed the format string. And would you believe it... now it's right...?



Some more backstory; The value I calculated from moves from 0.5 to 1.5 in steps of 0.1. It was when going downwards the error occurred.

So I'm just assuming that numerical calculations with floating points for some weird reason aren't as accurate as they should be in WoW Lua, and that some rounding functions keep the values "right" while using them as values, but when put into a format string in a %d they just cut off the hidden decimals instead of rounding up? I tried using floor, I tried deducting the result of a modulo operation (which is to floor it), and nothing would fix it when using %d. Seems like once a variable has turned into a floating point, it's screwed.

Anyway, none of this should happen at all, should it? I just thought it was a really strange bug. And no matter how I try I can't see how the problem was my code. I mean, if a value is 130, says 130 when you print the value out, it should say 130 when put into a "%d" format string, right? Not 129.

For now I have replaced every single %d in my UI with %.0f. Might be a bit of an overkill, especially if it turns out I've missed something obvious here. But if not, and it really is a bug going on here, I'd rather go for "safe than sorry" until/if the bug can be sorted out. At least my overkill workaround gives me addons that work as I intended.

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