APM: Perl zero not being zero, but 7e-12

[David Bluestein II]

Okay, I've seen this before and have a question how to avoid it.

I take two variables:

$a= 38071.63;
$b = $i + $j; # Where $i + $j => 38071.63

print "$a : $b"; # results in 38071.63 : 38071.63

Yet if I do:

if ($a == $b) {
print "Equal";
} else {
print "Not equal";
}

I get a "Not equal".

If I subtract ($b-$a) the result is 7.27595761418343e-12. How do I get 
Perl to ignore this "noise" which comes from someplace?

David

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
David H. Bluestein II
President & Lead Developer         dbii at interaction.net
ii, inc.                                                  
http://www.interaction.net
     -- Specializing in Interactive, Database Driven Websites --