What alternative approaches can be used to handle numerical calculations in PHP to avoid precision errors?

When dealing with numerical calculations in PHP, precision errors can occur due to the way floating-point numbers are represented in computer memory. To avoid these errors, one alternative approach is to use the BCMath extension, which provides arbitrary precision mathematics functions in PHP. 

// Using the BCMath extension to perform precise numerical calculations
$number1 = '1.23456789';
$number2 = '9.87654321';

$sum = bcadd($number1, $number2, 10); // Adding two numbers with a precision of 10 decimal places
$product = bcmul($number1, $number2, 10); // Multiplying two numbers with a precision of 10 decimal places

echo "Sum: $sum\n";
echo "Product: $product\n";

Keywords

arbitrary precision BCMath GMP floating point precision errors

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