[R] trunc/floor a number -- strange bahaviour

ONKELINX, Thierry Thierry.ONKELINX at inbo.be
Thu Feb 12 16:35:16 CET 2009


That is not strange behaviour. It's a case of FAQ 7.31: http://cran.r-project.org/doc/FAQ/R-FAQ.html#Why-doesn_0027t-R-think-these-numbers-are-equal_003f 

HTH,

Thierry

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ir. Thierry Onkelinx
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Cel biometrie, methodologie en kwaliteitszorg / Section biometrics, methodology and quality assurance
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tel. + 32 54/436 185
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-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] Namens Žroutík
Verzonden: donderdag 12 februari 2009 16:20
Aan: r-help at r-project.org
Onderwerp: [R] trunc/floor a number -- strange bahaviour

Hi everybody,

given a fresh rgui.exe load on winxp OS, I enter (a minimal exaple)

n <- 12.357531

Then the following command:
n <- (n - floor(n))*10; n

gives the following outputs:
[1] 3.57531
[1] 5.7531
[1] 7.531
[1] 5.31
[1] 3.1
[1] 1         === still as expected
[1] 10        === not expected, count with me: 1 - floor(1) is zero, times
10 gives 0, not 10!!!!
[1] 10        === should stay forever zero (0)
[1] 10
[1] 9.999998
[1] 9.999982
[1] 9.999821
[1] 9.998212

The sama happens with trunc().
e.g. (a minimal exaple)

n <- 0.245
n <- (n - trunc(n))*10; n
[1] 2.45
[1] 4.5
[1] 5
[1] 1.776357e-13 ===== zero expected!!!
[1] 1.776357e-12

And I'm asking "what the heck?!" and where is the bug in my examples? Any
suggestion well appreciated.

p.s. The expression with floor() and trunc() are to be implemented in a
function which gives a value equal precision order of the given number. e.g.
12.345 would have (-3), 12.1 would have (-1), 12 would have (0) and e.g.
12000 would have the order of the precision (4). Basically, it is the order
of the last given non-zero digit.

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