## fast_float number parsing library: 4x faster than strtod

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The fast_float library provides fast header-only implementations for the C++ from_chars
functions for `float` and `double` types.  These functions convert ASCII strings representing
decimal values (e.g., `1.3e10`) into binary types. We provide exact rounding (including
round to even). In our experience, these `fast_float` functions many times faster than comparable number-parsing functions from existing C++ standard libraries.

Specifically, `fast_float` provides the following two functions with a C++17-like syntax (the library itself only requires C++11):

```C++
from_chars_result from_chars(const char* first, const char* last, float& value, ...);
from_chars_result from_chars(const char* first, const char* last, double& value, ...);
```

The return type (`from_chars_result`) is defined as the struct:
```C++
struct from_chars_result {
    const char* ptr;
    std::errc ec;
};
```

It parses the character sequence [first,last) for a number. It parses floating-point numbers expecting
a locale-independent format equivalent to what is used by `std::strtod` in the default ("C") locale. 
The resulting floating-point value is the closest floating-point values (using either float or double), 
using the "round to even" convention for values that would otherwise fall right in-between two values.
That is, we provide exact parsing according to the IEEE standard.

Given a successful parse, the pointer (`ptr`) in the returned value is set to point right after the
parsed number, and the `value` referenced is set to the parsed value. In case of error, the returned
`ec` contains a representative error, otherwise the default (`std::errc()`) value is stored.

The implementation does not throw and does not allocate memory (e.g., with `new` or `malloc`).

It will parse infinity and nan values.

Example:

``` C++
#include "fast_float/fast_float.h"
#include <iostream>
 
int main() {
    const std::string input =  "3.1416 xyz ";
    double result;
    auto answer = fast_float::from_chars(input.data(), input.data()+input.size(), result);
    if(answer.ec != std::errc()) { std::cerr << "parsing failure\n"; return EXIT_FAILURE; }
    std::cout << "parsed the number " << result << std::endl;
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
```


Like the C++17 standard, the `fast_float::from_chars` functions take an optional last argument of
the type `fast_float::chars_format`. It is a bitset value: we check whether 
`fmt & fast_float::chars_format::fixed` and `fmt & fast_float::chars_format::scientific` are set
to determine whether we allow the fixed point and scientific notation respectively.
The default is  `fast_float::chars_format::general` which allows both `fixed` and `scientific`.

We support Visual Studio, macOS, Linux, freeBSD. We support big and little endian. We support 32-bit and 64-bit systems.

## Reference

- Daniel Lemire, [Number Parsing at a Gigabyte per Second](https://arxiv.org/abs/2101.11408), arXiv:2101.11408


## Other programming languages

- [There is an R binding](https://github.com/eddelbuettel/rcppfastfloat) called `rcppfastfloat`.
- [There is a Rust port of the fast_float library](https://github.com/aldanor/fast-float-rust/) called `fast-float-rust`.


## Relation With Other Work

The fast_float library provides a performance similar to that of the [fast_double_parser](https://github.com/lemire/fast_double_parser) library but using an updated algorithm reworked from the ground up, and while offering an API more in line with the expectations of C++ programmers. The fast_double_parser library is part of the [Microsoft LightGBM machine-learning framework](https://github.com/microsoft/LightGBM).

## Users

The fast_float library is used by [Apache Arrow](https://github.com/apache/arrow/pull/8494) where it multiplied the number parsing speed by two or three times. It is also used by [Yandex ClickHouse](https://github.com/ClickHouse/ClickHouse).


## How fast is it?

It can parse random floating-point numbers at a speed of 1 GB/s on some systems. We find that it is often twice as fast as the best available competitor, and many times faster than many standard-library implementations.

<img src="http://lemire.me/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/fastfloat_speed.png" width="400">

```
$ ./build/benchmarks/benchmark 
# parsing random integers in the range [0,1)
volume = 2.09808 MB 
netlib                                  :   271.18 MB/s (+/- 1.2 %)    12.93 Mfloat/s  
doubleconversion                        :   225.35 MB/s (+/- 1.2 %)    10.74 Mfloat/s  
strtod                                  :   190.94 MB/s (+/- 1.6 %)     9.10 Mfloat/s  
abseil                                  :   430.45 MB/s (+/- 2.2 %)    20.52 Mfloat/s  
fastfloat                               :  1042.38 MB/s (+/- 9.9 %)    49.68 Mfloat/s  
```

See https://github.com/lemire/simple_fastfloat_benchmark for our benchmarking code.


## Video

[![Go Systems 2020](http://img.youtube.com/vi/AVXgvlMeIm4/0.jpg)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVXgvlMeIm4)<br />

## Using as a CMake dependency

This library is header-only by design. The CMake file provides the `fast_float` target
which is merely a pointer to the `include` directory.

If you drop the `fast_float` repository in your CMake project, you should be able to use
it in this manner:

```cmake
add_subdirectory(fast_float)
target_link_libraries(myprogram PUBLIC fast_float)
```

Or you may want to retrieve the dependency automatically if you have a sufficiently recent version of CMake (3.11 or better at least):

```cmake
FetchContent_Declare(
  fast_float
  GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/lemire/fast_float.git
  GIT_TAG origin/main
  GIT_SHALLOW TRUE)

FetchContent_MakeAvailable(fast_float)
target_link_libraries(myprogram PUBLIC fast_float)

```


## Requirements and Limitations

In many cases, this library can be used as a drop-in replacement for the C++17 `from_chars` function, especially when performance is a concerned. Thus we expect C++17 support. Though it might be reasonable to want C++17 features as part of old compilers, support old systems is not an objective of this library.

The `from_chars` is meant to be locale-independent. Thus it is not an objective of this library to support
locale-sensitive parsing.

The performance is optimized for 19 or fewer significant digits. In practice, there should
never be more than 17 digits since it is enough to identify exactly all possible 64-bit numbers (double).
In fact, for many numbers, far fewer than 17 digits are needed.


## Credit

Though this work is inspired by many different people, this work benefited especially from exchanges with 
Michael Eisel, who motivated the original research with his key insights, and with Nigel Tao who provided 
invaluable feedback. Rémy Oudompheng first implemented a fast path we use in the case of long digits.

The library includes code adapted from Google Wuffs (written by Nigel Tao) which was originally published 
under the Apache 2.0 license.
