[R] Floating points and floor() ?

[rex.dwyer at syngenta.com]

Hi Michael,

In floating point calculation, 1.0-.9 is not exactly 0.1.  This is easily seen by subtracting.
> (1.0-.9)-0.1
[1] -2.775558e-17
> (1.0-.9)==0.1
[1] FALSE

David is right, you can't "correct" this.  You can only compensate by taking care that you never, ever test whether 2 FP numbers are equal, because they almost never are.  You must always ask whether the difference is small.

> round(1.0-.9-.1,15)==0
[1] TRUE

Unfortunately, most of us forget this rule once in a while and write a loop like "while (x!=0)..." that won't terminate.
HTH
Rex



-----Original Message-----
From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of Folkes, Michael
Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2011 9:24 PM
To: r-help at r-project.org
Subject: [R] Floating points and floor() ?

Perhaps somebody could clarify for me if the following is a floating
point matter or otherwise, and how am I to correct for it?

> floor(100*.1)
[1] 10

> 100*(1.0-.9)
[1] 10

> floor(100*(1-0.9))
[1] 9


Thanks!
Michael
_______________________________________________________
Michael Folkes
Salmon Stock Assessment
Canadian Dept. of Fisheries & Oceans
Pacific Biological Station
3190 Hammond Bay Rd.
Nanaimo, B.C., Canada
V9T-6N7
Ph (250) 756-7264 Fax (250) 756-7053  Michael.Folkes at dfo-mpo.gc.ca


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