What is floating point representation used for?

Floating point representation is specifically designed to store real numbers that can have fractional parts, distinguishing it from fixed-point or integer storage methods. It achieves this by breaking real numbers into two main components: a mantissa (which represents the significant digits of the number) and an exponent (which indicates the scale or size of the number). This representation allows for a wide range of values to be stored, including very small and very large numbers, which is essential in many scientific and engineering applications.

The flexibility of floating point allows it to manage both very precise and very broad numerical data, making it particularly useful for calculations that involve division or very small decimal figures, where whole numbers are insufficient. In contrast, storing whole numbers efficiently, complex data types, or binary data types does not leverage the specific advantages offered by floating point representation, which are focused on representing real numbers accurately across varying scales.