bash - awk read float precision: cannot read small floats, e.g. 4e-320 -

i cannot awk or gawk read small floats in scientific notation , interpret them correctly floating point numbers.

i want output numbers above small threshold awk.

example:

consider following input:

4 3e-20 4.5e-320 3 1e-10

i want threshold 1e-15, following:

echo -e "4\n3e-20\n4.5e-320\n3\n1e-10"  |  awk '$1 > 1e-15'

which gives output:

4 4.5e-320 3 1e-10

of course, 4.5e-320 not pass 1e-15 threshold, awk , gawk fail reject it!

i looked (g)awk floating point precision. seems apply only arithmetic operations within awk.

so, replacing awk '$1 > 1e-15' gawk -v prec="double" '$1 > 1e-15' fails. fails prec="quad"

thus, conclude (g)awk not reading 4.5e-320 float, instead string?

i expected output awk version 3.1.5.

i output awk version 3.1.7.

you can force awk convert string number adding 0 it.

so try awk script instead:

printf '4\n3e-20\n4.5e-320\n3\n1e-10\n' | awk '$1+0 > 1e-15'

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