FloatFields are not actually Floats

[David Cramer <dcramer@…>]

FloatFields should return a float() datatype so they can be used in comparison.

The issue arises when you want to compare data in the database, to data thats not yet in the database.

e.g.

float_field = FloatField(decimal_places=2, max_digits=8)

a = MyModel.objects.get(pk=1)
In [57]: a.unknown3
Out[57]: Decimal("0.00")

In [58]: a.unknown3 == 0
Out[58]: True

In [59]: a.unknown3 == 0.0
Out[59]: False

In [60]: a.unknown3 == 0.00
Out[60]: False

This is misdirection and I believe one of the following should happen:

• the data type should either be changed to a float
• the data type should be comparable with a float
• it should be relabeled DecimalField

[James Bennett]

A more comprehensive discussion is in #2365 (which proposes moving the current FloatField to a different name and implementing a new FloatField which guarantees a Python float type), so I'm closing this as a duplicate.