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i am trying to implement a recursive function in F# which takes a float and returns a list of ints representing the continued fraction representation of the float (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continued_fraction) In general i think i understand how the algorithm is supposed to work. its fairly simply. What i have so far is this:

the problem is with the base case obviously. It seems the value r never does reduce to 0.0 instead the algorithm keeps on returning values which are the likes of 0.0.....[number]. I am just not sure how to perform the comparison. How exactly should i go about it. The algorithm the function is based on says the base case is 0, so i naturally interpret this as 0.0. I dont see any other way. Also, do note that this is for an assignment where i am explicitly asked to implement the algorithm recursively. Does anyone have some guidance for me? It would be much appreciated

Explanation / Answer

The problem is that you can not just compare

r == 0.0

because in case of floating point numbers they may never converge to 0.0 instead value might be 0.0000000001. Very close to zero but not actually zero.

So a very simple solution is to define a

and compare

r < EPSILON instead of r == 0.0

Here is your modified code

Choose your epsison wisely.

You can print value of r and see what is the minumum value of r is and then choose epsilon.

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