Inexplicable computational error - c

Question

I am writing a program that reads wavelength and intensity data from separate signal and background files (so each file is comprised of a number of pairs of wavelength and intensity). As you can see, I do this by creating a structure, and then assigning the values to the proper elements in the structure using fscanf in a loop. Once the data is read in, the program is supposed to plot it on the interval where the recorded wavelengths in each file overlap, that is, the common range of wavelengths. The wavelengths align perfectly where this overlap exist and are known to be spaced at a constant difference. Thus, my way of discerning which elements of the structure array were applicable was to determine which of the two files' minimum wavelength was higher, and maximum wavelength was lower. Then, for the file that had the lower minimum and higher maximum, I would find the difference between this and the higher minimum/lower maximum, and then divide it by the constant step to determine how many elements to offset. This works, except when the math is done, the program returns a wrong answer that is completely inexplicable.
In the code below, I define the constant step as lambdastep by calculating the difference between wavelengths of one element and the element before it. With my sample data, it is .002, which is confirmed by printf. However, when I run the program and divide by lambdastep, I get an incorrect answer. When I run the program dividing by .002, I get the correct answer. Why is this case? There is no explanation I can think of.
#include<stdio.h>
#include<math.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
#include "plots.h"
struct spectrum{
double lambda;
double intensity;
};
main(){
double a=0,b=0,c=0,d=0,lambdastep,smin,smax,bmin,bmax,tmin,tmax,sintmin,bintmin,tintmin,sintmax,bintmax,tintmax,ymin,ymax;
int ns,nb,nt,i=0,sminel,smaxel,bminel,bmaxel,tminel,tmaxel;
double min(struct spectrum *a,int,int);
double max(struct spectrum *a,int,int);
FILE *Input;
Input = fopen("sig.dat","r");
FILE *InputII;
InputII = fopen("bck.dat","r");
fscanf(Input,"%d",&ns);
fscanf(InputII,"%d",&nb);
struct spectrum signal[ns];
struct spectrum background[nb];
struct spectrum *s = &signal[0];
struct spectrum *ba = &background[0];
s = malloc(ns*sizeof(struct spectrum));
ba = malloc(nb*sizeof(struct spectrum));
while( fscanf(Input,"%lf%lf",&a,&b) != EOF){
signal[i].lambda = a;
signal[i].intensity = b;
i++;
}
i = 0;
while( fscanf(InputII,"%lf%lf",&c,&d) != EOF){
background[i].lambda = c;
background[i].intensity = d;
i++;
}
for (i=0; i < ns ;i++){
printf("%.7lf %.7lf\n", signal[i].lambda,signal[i].intensity);
}
printf("\n");
for (i=0; i < nb ;i++){
printf("%.7lf %.7lf\n", background[i].lambda,background[i].intensity);
}
lambdastep = signal[1].lambda - signal[0].lambda; //this is where I define lambdastep as the interval between two measurements
smin = signal[0].lambda;
smax = signal[ns-1].lambda;
bmin = background[0].lambda;
bmax = background[nb-1].lambda;
if (smin > bmin)
tmin = smin;
else
tmin = bmin;
if (smax > bmax)
tmax = bmax;
else
tmax = smax;
printf("%lf %lf %lf %lf %lf %lf %lf\n",lambdastep,smin,smax,bmin,bmax,tmin,tmax); //here is where I confirm that it is .002, which is the expected value
sminel = (tmin-smin)/(lambdastep); //sminel should be 27, but it returns 26 when lamdastep is used. it works right when .002 is directly entered , but not with lambdastep, even though i already confirmed they are exactly the same. why?

Answer 1

sminel is an integer, so (tmin-smin)/lambdastep will be casted to an integer when the calculation concludes.
A very slight difference in lambdastep could be the difference between getting e.g. 27.00001 and 26.99999; the latter truncates down to 26 when cast to an int.
Try using floor, ceil, or round to get better control over the rounding of the returned value.

Answer 2

It almost certainly has to do with the inherent imprecision of floating-point calculations. Trying printing out lambdastep to many significant digits -- I bet you'll find that its exact value is slightly larger than you think it is.
With my sample data, it is .002, which is confirmed by printf.
Try printing out (lambdastep == .002).