strictfp - Java

strictfp

With the creation of Java 2, the floating-point computation model was relaxed slightly. Specifically, the new model does not require the truncation of certain intermediate values that occur during a computation. This prevents overflow or underflow in some cases. By modifying a class, a method, or interface with strictfp, you ensure that floating-point calculations (and thus all truncations) take place precisely as they did in earlier versions of Java. When a class is modified by strictfp, all the methods in the class are also modified by strictfp automatically.

For example, the following fragment tells Java to use the original floating-point model for calculations in all methods defined within MyClass:

strictfp class MyClass { //...

Frankly, most programmers never need to use strictfp, because it affects only a very small class of problems.