下面是使用std::numeric_limits::epsilon()不是答案的证明——对于大于1的值它会失败:

证明我上面的评论:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <limits>

double ItoD (__int64 x) {
    // Return double from 64-bit hexadecimal representation.
    return *(reinterpret_cast<double*>(&x));
}

void test (__int64 ai, __int64 bi) {
    double a = ItoD(ai), b = ItoD(bi);
    bool close = std::fabs(a-b) < std::numeric_limits<double>::epsilon();
    printf ("%.16f and %.16f %s close.\n", a, b, close ? "are " : "are not");
}

int main()
{
    test (0x3fe0000000000000L,
          0x3fe0000000000001L);

    test (0x3ff0000000000000L,
          0x3ff0000000000001L);
}

运行产生如下输出:

0.5000000000000000 and 0.5000000000000001 are  close.
1.0000000000000000 and 1.0000000000000002 are not close.

请注意，在第二种情况下(1且仅大于1)，两个输入值尽可能接近，并且仍然比较为不接近。因此，对于大于1.0的值，不妨只使用相等性测试。当比较浮点值时，固定的epsilon将无法保存您的数据。

不幸的是，即使您的“浪费”代码也是不正确的。EPSILON是可以添加到1.0并更改其值的最小值。值1.0非常重要——更大的数字在添加到EPSILON时不会改变。现在，您可以将这个值缩放到您正在比较的数字，以判断它们是否不同。比较两个双精度对象的正确表达式是:

if (fabs(a - b) <= DBL_EPSILON * fmax(fabs(a), fabs(b)))
{
    // ...
}

这是最小值。一般来说，你会想要在计算中考虑噪声，并忽略一些最不重要的位，所以更现实的比较应该是这样的:

if (fabs(a - b) <= 16 * DBL_EPSILON * fmax(fabs(a), fabs(b)))
{
    // ...
}

如果比较性能对您非常重要，并且您知道值的范围，那么您应该使用定点数字。

'返回fabs(a - b) < EPSILON;

这是可以的，如果:

输入的数量级变化不大 极少数相反的符号可以被视为相等

否则就会给你带来麻烦。双精度数的分辨率约为小数点后16位。如果您正在比较的两个数字在量级上大于EPSILON*1.0E16，那么您可能会说:

return a==b;

我将研究一种不同的方法，假设您需要担心第一个问题，并假设第二个问题对您的应用程序很好。解决方案应该是这样的:

#define VERYSMALL  (1.0E-150)
#define EPSILON    (1.0E-8)
bool AreSame(double a, double b)
{
    double absDiff = fabs(a - b);
    if (absDiff < VERYSMALL)
    {
        return true;
    }

    double maxAbs  = max(fabs(a) - fabs(b));
    return (absDiff/maxAbs) < EPSILON;
}

这在计算上是昂贵的，但有时是需要的。这就是我们公司必须做的事情，因为我们要处理一个工程库，输入可能相差几十个数量级。

无论如何，关键在于(并且适用于几乎所有的编程问题):评估你的需求是什么，然后想出一个解决方案来满足你的需求——不要认为简单的答案就能满足你的需求。如果在您的评估后，您发现fabs(a-b) < EPSILON将足够，完美-使用它!但也要注意它的缺点和其他可能的解决方案。

使用任何其他建议都要非常小心。这完全取决于上下文。

我花了很长时间在一个系统中追踪错误，该系统假设|a-b|<epsilon，则a==b。潜在的问题是:

The implicit presumption in an algorithm that if a==b and b==c then a==c. Using the same epsilon for lines measured in inches and lines measured in mils (.001 inch). That is a==b but 1000a!=1000b. (This is why AlmostEqual2sComplement asks for the epsilon or max ULPS). The use of the same epsilon for both the cosine of angles and the length of lines! Using such a compare function to sort items in a collection. (In this case using the builtin C++ operator == for doubles produced correct results.)

就像我说的，这完全取决于上下文和a和b的预期大小。

顺便说一下，std::numeric_limits<double>::epsilon()是“机器epsilon”。它是1.0和下一个用double表示的值之间的差值。我猜它可以用在比较函数中，但只有当期望值小于1时。(这是对@cdv的回答的回应…)

同样，如果你的int算术是双精度的(这里我们在某些情况下使用双精度来保存int值)，你的算术是正确的。例如，4.0/2.0将等同于1.0+1.0。只要你不做导致分数(4.0/3.0)的事情，或者不超出int的大小。

我使用这个代码:

bool AlmostEqual(double v1, double v2)
    {
        return (std::fabs(v1 - v2) < std::fabs(std::min(v1, v2)) * std::numeric_limits<double>::epsilon());
    }

I found that the Google C++ Testing Framework contains a nice cross-platform template-based implementation of AlmostEqual2sComplement which works on both doubles and floats. Given that it is released under the BSD license, using it in your own code should be no problem, as long as you retain the license. I extracted the below code from http://code.google.com/p/googletest/source/browse/trunk/include/gtest/internal/gtest-internal.h https://github.com/google/googletest/blob/master/googletest/include/gtest/internal/gtest-internal.h and added the license on top.

一定要将GTEST_OS_WINDOWS定义为某个值(或者将使用它的代码更改为适合您的代码库的代码-毕竟它是BSD许可的)。

使用的例子:

double left  = // something
double right = // something
const FloatingPoint<double> lhs(left), rhs(right);

if (lhs.AlmostEquals(rhs)) {
  //they're equal!
}

代码如下:

// Copyright 2005, Google Inc.
// All rights reserved.
//
// Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
// modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are
// met:
//
//     * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
// notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
//     * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above
// copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer
// in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the
// distribution.
//     * Neither the name of Google Inc. nor the names of its
// contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from
// this software without specific prior written permission.
//
// THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
// "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
// LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR
// A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT
// OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
// SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT
// LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
// DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
// THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
// (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
// OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
//
// Authors: wan@google.com (Zhanyong Wan), eefacm@gmail.com (Sean Mcafee)
//
// The Google C++ Testing Framework (Google Test)


// This template class serves as a compile-time function from size to
// type.  It maps a size in bytes to a primitive type with that
// size. e.g.
//
//   TypeWithSize<4>::UInt
//
// is typedef-ed to be unsigned int (unsigned integer made up of 4
// bytes).
//
// Such functionality should belong to STL, but I cannot find it
// there.
//
// Google Test uses this class in the implementation of floating-point
// comparison.
//
// For now it only handles UInt (unsigned int) as that's all Google Test
// needs.  Other types can be easily added in the future if need
// arises.
template <size_t size>
class TypeWithSize {
 public:
  // This prevents the user from using TypeWithSize<N> with incorrect
  // values of N.
  typedef void UInt;
};

// The specialization for size 4.
template <>
class TypeWithSize<4> {
 public:
  // unsigned int has size 4 in both gcc and MSVC.
  //
  // As base/basictypes.h doesn't compile on Windows, we cannot use
  // uint32, uint64, and etc here.
  typedef int Int;
  typedef unsigned int UInt;
};

// The specialization for size 8.
template <>
class TypeWithSize<8> {
 public:
#if GTEST_OS_WINDOWS
  typedef __int64 Int;
  typedef unsigned __int64 UInt;
#else
  typedef long long Int;  // NOLINT
  typedef unsigned long long UInt;  // NOLINT
#endif  // GTEST_OS_WINDOWS
};


// This template class represents an IEEE floating-point number
// (either single-precision or double-precision, depending on the
// template parameters).
//
// The purpose of this class is to do more sophisticated number
// comparison.  (Due to round-off error, etc, it's very unlikely that
// two floating-points will be equal exactly.  Hence a naive
// comparison by the == operation often doesn't work.)
//
// Format of IEEE floating-point:
//
//   The most-significant bit being the leftmost, an IEEE
//   floating-point looks like
//
//     sign_bit exponent_bits fraction_bits
//
//   Here, sign_bit is a single bit that designates the sign of the
//   number.
//
//   For float, there are 8 exponent bits and 23 fraction bits.
//
//   For double, there are 11 exponent bits and 52 fraction bits.
//
//   More details can be found at
//   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_floating-point_standard.
//
// Template parameter:
//
//   RawType: the raw floating-point type (either float or double)
template <typename RawType>
class FloatingPoint {
 public:
  // Defines the unsigned integer type that has the same size as the
  // floating point number.
  typedef typename TypeWithSize<sizeof(RawType)>::UInt Bits;

  // Constants.

  // # of bits in a number.
  static const size_t kBitCount = 8*sizeof(RawType);

  // # of fraction bits in a number.
  static const size_t kFractionBitCount =
    std::numeric_limits<RawType>::digits - 1;

  // # of exponent bits in a number.
  static const size_t kExponentBitCount = kBitCount - 1 - kFractionBitCount;

  // The mask for the sign bit.
  static const Bits kSignBitMask = static_cast<Bits>(1) << (kBitCount - 1);

  // The mask for the fraction bits.
  static const Bits kFractionBitMask =
    ~static_cast<Bits>(0) >> (kExponentBitCount + 1);

  // The mask for the exponent bits.
  static const Bits kExponentBitMask = ~(kSignBitMask | kFractionBitMask);

  // How many ULP's (Units in the Last Place) we want to tolerate when
  // comparing two numbers.  The larger the value, the more error we
  // allow.  A 0 value means that two numbers must be exactly the same
  // to be considered equal.
  //
  // The maximum error of a single floating-point operation is 0.5
  // units in the last place.  On Intel CPU's, all floating-point
  // calculations are done with 80-bit precision, while double has 64
  // bits.  Therefore, 4 should be enough for ordinary use.
  //
  // See the following article for more details on ULP:
  // http://www.cygnus-software.com/papers/comparingfloats/comparingfloats.htm.
  static const size_t kMaxUlps = 4;

  // Constructs a FloatingPoint from a raw floating-point number.
  //
  // On an Intel CPU, passing a non-normalized NAN (Not a Number)
  // around may change its bits, although the new value is guaranteed
  // to be also a NAN.  Therefore, don't expect this constructor to
  // preserve the bits in x when x is a NAN.
  explicit FloatingPoint(const RawType& x) { u_.value_ = x; }

  // Static methods

  // Reinterprets a bit pattern as a floating-point number.
  //
  // This function is needed to test the AlmostEquals() method.
  static RawType ReinterpretBits(const Bits bits) {
    FloatingPoint fp(0);
    fp.u_.bits_ = bits;
    return fp.u_.value_;
  }

  // Returns the floating-point number that represent positive infinity.
  static RawType Infinity() {
    return ReinterpretBits(kExponentBitMask);
  }

  // Non-static methods

  // Returns the bits that represents this number.
  const Bits &bits() const { return u_.bits_; }

  // Returns the exponent bits of this number.
  Bits exponent_bits() const { return kExponentBitMask & u_.bits_; }

  // Returns the fraction bits of this number.
  Bits fraction_bits() const { return kFractionBitMask & u_.bits_; }

  // Returns the sign bit of this number.
  Bits sign_bit() const { return kSignBitMask & u_.bits_; }

  // Returns true iff this is NAN (not a number).
  bool is_nan() const {
    // It's a NAN if the exponent bits are all ones and the fraction
    // bits are not entirely zeros.
    return (exponent_bits() == kExponentBitMask) && (fraction_bits() != 0);
  }

  // Returns true iff this number is at most kMaxUlps ULP's away from
  // rhs.  In particular, this function:
  //
  //   - returns false if either number is (or both are) NAN.
  //   - treats really large numbers as almost equal to infinity.
  //   - thinks +0.0 and -0.0 are 0 DLP's apart.
  bool AlmostEquals(const FloatingPoint& rhs) const {
    // The IEEE standard says that any comparison operation involving
    // a NAN must return false.
    if (is_nan() || rhs.is_nan()) return false;

    return DistanceBetweenSignAndMagnitudeNumbers(u_.bits_, rhs.u_.bits_)
        <= kMaxUlps;
  }

 private:
  // The data type used to store the actual floating-point number.
  union FloatingPointUnion {
    RawType value_;  // The raw floating-point number.
    Bits bits_;      // The bits that represent the number.
  };

  // Converts an integer from the sign-and-magnitude representation to
  // the biased representation.  More precisely, let N be 2 to the
  // power of (kBitCount - 1), an integer x is represented by the
  // unsigned number x + N.
  //
  // For instance,
  //
  //   -N + 1 (the most negative number representable using
  //          sign-and-magnitude) is represented by 1;
  //   0      is represented by N; and
  //   N - 1  (the biggest number representable using
  //          sign-and-magnitude) is represented by 2N - 1.
  //
  // Read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signed_number_representations
  // for more details on signed number representations.
  static Bits SignAndMagnitudeToBiased(const Bits &sam) {
    if (kSignBitMask & sam) {
      // sam represents a negative number.
      return ~sam + 1;
    } else {
      // sam represents a positive number.
      return kSignBitMask | sam;
    }
  }

  // Given two numbers in the sign-and-magnitude representation,
  // returns the distance between them as an unsigned number.
  static Bits DistanceBetweenSignAndMagnitudeNumbers(const Bits &sam1,
                                                     const Bits &sam2) {
    const Bits biased1 = SignAndMagnitudeToBiased(sam1);
    const Bits biased2 = SignAndMagnitudeToBiased(sam2);
    return (biased1 >= biased2) ? (biased1 - biased2) : (biased2 - biased1);
  }

  FloatingPointUnion u_;
};

编辑:这篇文章是4年前写的。它可能仍然有效，代码也很好，但有些人发现了改进。最好从谷歌Test源代码中获得最新版本的AlmostEquals，而不是我粘贴在这里的那个。