Converting bool to float

[Travis Oliphant]

Robert Kern wrote:

>Tim Hochberg wrote:
>  
>
>>Travis Oliphant wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>Robert Kern wrote:
>>>      
>>>
>>>>Travis Oliphant wrote:   
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>>>It looks like 1.0-x is doing the right thing.
>>>>>
>>>>>The problem is 1.0*x for matrices is going to float64.  For arrays it 
>>>>>returns float32 just like the 1.0-x
>>>>>      
>>>>>          
>>>>>
>>>>Why is this the right thing? Python floats are float64.
>>>> 
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>Yeah, why indeed.  Must be something with the scalar coercion code...
>>>      
>>>
>>This is one of those things that pops up every few years. I suspect that 
>>the best thing to do here is to treat 1.0, and all Python floats as 
>>having a kind (float), but no precision. Or, equivalently treat them as 
>>the smallest precision floating point value. The rationale behind this 
>>is that otherwise float32 array will be promoted whenever they are 
>>multiplied by Python floating point scalars. If Python floats are 
>>treated as Float64 for purposes of determining output precision then 
>>anyone using float32 arrays is going to have to wrap all of their 
>>literals in float32 to prevent inadvertent upcasting to float64. This 
>>was the origin of the (rather clunky) numarray spacesaver flag.
>>
>>It's no skin off my nose either way, since I pretty much never use 
>>float32, but I suspect that treating python floats equivalently to 
>>float64 scalars would be a mistake. At the very least it deserves a bit 
>>of discussion.
>>    
>>
>
>Well, they *are* 64-bit floating point numbers. You simply can't get around 
>that. That's why we now have all of the scalar types: you can get any precision 
>scalars that you want as long as you are explicit about it (and explicit is 
>better than implicit). The spacesaver flag was the only solution before the 
>various scalar types existed. I'd like to suggest that the discussion already 
>occurred some time ago and has concluded in favor of the scalar types. 
>Downcasting should be explicit.
>
>However, whether or not float32 arrays operated with Python float scalars give 
>float32 or float64 arrays is tangential to my question. Does anyone actually 
>think that a Python float operated with a boolean array should give a float32 
>result? Must we *up*cast a boolean array to float64 to preserve the precision of 
>the scalar?
>
>  
>
The first basic rule is that scalars don't control the precision of the 
output when doing mixed-type calculations *except* when they are of a 
fundamentally different kind. 

Then (if a different kind of scalar is used), the rule is that the 
arrays will be upcast to the "lowest" precision in the group to preserve 
overall precision.   So, when a bool is combined with a "float" kind of 
scalar, the result is float32 because that preserves precision of the 
bool.  Remember it is array precision that takes precedence over scalars 
in mixed type array-scalar operations.

This is the rule.  I agree that this rule is probably flawed in certain 
circumstances.

So, what should be done about it at this point?  Do you think a change 
is acceptable for 1.0.1 or does it need to wait a year until 1.1?

-Travis


















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