[erlang-questions] binary_to_float: <<"2e-1">> versus <<"2.0e-1">>

[Peter Morgan]

I am parsing output from another system, where numbers arrive in a variety
of forms which are out of my control. This one has caught me out recently:

1> binary_to_float(<<"2e-1">>).

** exception error: bad argument

     in function  binary_to_float/1

        called as binary_to_float(<<"2e-1">>)


Whereas:

2> binary_to_float(<<"2.0e-1">>).

0.2


On:

erl -version

Erlang (SMP,ASYNC_THREADS,HIPE) (BEAM) emulator version 6.3


Any good reason why in binary_to_float with a scientific notation the
coefficient must be a float?

I'm now pattern matching this case before passing a modified coefficient as
a floating point before passing it to binary_to_float.

Thanks,
Peter.
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