C fundamentals: double variable not equal to double expression?

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I suspect you’re using 32-bit x86, the only common architecture subject to excess precision. In C, expressions of type float and double are actually evaluated as float_t or double_t, whose relationships to float and double are reflected in the FLT_EVAL_METHOD macro. In the case of x86, both are defined as long double because the fpu is not actually capable of performing arithmetic at single or double precision. (It has mode bits intended to allow that, but the behavior is slightly wrong and thus can’t be used.)

Assigning to an object of type float or double is one way to force rounding and get rid of the excess precision, but you can also just add a gratuitous cast to (double) if you prefer to leave it as an expression without assignments.

Note that forcing rounding to the desired precision is not equivalent to performing the arithmetic at the desired precision; instead of one rounding step (during the arithmetic) you now have two (during the arithmetic, and again to drop unwanted precision), and in cases where the first rounding gives you an exact-midpoint, the second rounding can go in the ‘wrong’ direction. This issue is generally called double rounding, and it makes excess precision significantly worse than nominal precision for certain types of calculations.

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