[R] R: to the power

[allan_sta_staff_sci_main_uct@mail.uct.ac.za]

hi all

i simply wanted to work with real numbers and thought that (-8)^(1/3) should
work.

sorry for not making the question clearer.

/
allan

Quoting Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca>:

> On 7/12/2005 9:29 AM, Robin Hankin wrote:
> > Hi
> >
> > I find that one often needs to keep reals real and complexes complex.
> >
> > Try this:
> >
> > "cuberooti" <-
> >    function (x)
> > {
> >    if (is.complex(x)) {
> >      return(sqrt(x + (0+0i)))
> >    }
> >    sign(x)*  abs(x)^(1/3)
> > }
> >
> >
> > best wishes
> >
> > [see that (0+0i) sitting there!]
>
> I don't understand this.
>
> 1.  I don't think you meant to use sqrt() there, did you??
>
> 2.  What effect does the 0+0i have?  x has already been determined to be
> complex.
>
> Duncan Murdoch
>