What are the potential pitfalls of converting fractions to decimal numbers in PHP, especially when dealing with GPS data?

When converting fractions to decimal numbers in PHP, especially when dealing with GPS data, potential pitfalls include loss of precision and rounding errors. To solve this issue, it is recommended to use PHP's built-in functions for handling decimal numbers, such as number_format() or sprintf(), to control the precision of the decimal output. 

// Example code snippet for converting a fraction to a decimal number with precision control
$fraction = "1/3";
$decimal = eval('return ' . $fraction . ';'); // Evaluate the fraction expression
$decimal_formatted = number_format($decimal, 6); // Format the decimal number with 6 decimal places
echo $decimal_formatted; // Output the formatted decimal number

Keywords

floating point precision round() GPS coordinates data loss type casting

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