Add a macro for checking approximate values

A macro like this is useful to avoid direct comparisons between floating
point values.

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/glib/issues/914

3 files changed, 24 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/docs/reference/glib/glib-sections.txt b/docs/reference/glib/glib-sections.txt
index 32a7664e8..1a5c9fa5e 100644
--- a/docs/reference/glib/glib-sections.txt
+++ b/docs/reference/glib/glib-sections.txt
@@ -219,6 +219,7 @@ MAX
 <SUBSECTION>
 ABS
 CLAMP
+G_APPROX_VALUE
 
 <SUBSECTION>
 G_STRUCT_MEMBER
diff --git a/glib/docs.c b/glib/docs.c
index 080c1b0de..5a786311c 100644
--- a/glib/docs.c
+++ b/glib/docs.c
@@ -1789,6 +1789,26 @@
  */
 
 /**
+ * G_APPROX_VALUE:
+ * @a: a numeric value
+ * @b: a numeric value
+ * @epsilon: a numeric value that expresses the tolerance between @a and @b
+ *
+ * Evaluates to a truth value if the absolute difference between @a and @b is
+ * smaller than @epsilon, and to a false value otherwise.
+ *
+ * For example,
+ * - `G_APPROX_VALUE (5, 6, 2)` evaluates to true
+ * - `G_APPROX_VALUE (3.14, 3.15, 0.001)` evaluates to false
+ * - `G_APPROX_VALUE (n, 0.f, FLT_EPSILON)` evaluates to true if `n` is within
+ *   the single precision floating point epsilon from zero
+ *
+ * Returns: %TRUE if the two values are within the desired range
+ *
+ * Since: 2.58
+ */
+
+/**
  * G_STRUCT_MEMBER:
  * @member_type: the type of the struct field
  * @struct_p: a pointer to a struct
diff --git a/glib/gmacros.h b/glib/gmacros.h
index 0e180bb09..cfeb9a00b 100644
--- a/glib/gmacros.h
+++ b/glib/gmacros.h
@@ -329,6 +329,9 @@
 #undef	CLAMP
 #define CLAMP(x, low, high)  (((x) > (high)) ? (high) : (((x) < (low)) ? (low) : (x)))
 
+#define G_APPROX_VALUE(a, b, epsilon) \
+  (((a) > (b) ? (a) - (b) : (b) - (a)) < (epsilon))
+
 /* Count the number of elements in an array. The array must be defined
  * as such; using this with a dynamically allocated array will give
  * incorrect results.