[Numpy-discussion] numpy.arange() error?

[Eric Firing]

On 02/09/2012 09:20 AM, Drew Frank wrote:
> Eric Firing<efiring<at>  hawaii.edu>  writes:
>
>>
>> On 02/08/2012 09:31 PM, teomat wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Am I wrong or the numpy.arange() function is not correct 100%?
>>>
>>> Try to do this:
>>>
>>> In [7]: len(np.arange(3.1, 4.9, 0.1))
>>> Out[7]: 18
>>>
>>> In [8]: len(np.arange(8.1, 9.9, 0.1))
>>> Out[8]: 19
>>>
>>> I would expect the same result for each command.
>>
>> Not after more experience with the wonders of floating point!
>> Nice-looking decimal numbers often have long, drawn-out, inexact
>> floating point (base 2) representations.  That leads to exactly this
>> sort of problem.
>>
>> numpy.linspace is provided to help get around some of these surprises;
>> or you can use an integer sequence and then scale and shift it.
>>
>> Eric
>>
>>>
>>> All the best
>>>
>>>
>>
> I also found this surprising -- not because I lack experience with floating
> point, but because I do have experience with MATLAB.  In MATLAB, the
> corresponding operation 3.1:0.1:4.9 has length 19 because of an explicit
> tolerance parameter used in the implmentation
> (http://www.mathworks.com/support/solutions/en/data/1-4FLI96/index.html?solution=1-4FLI96).
>
> Of course, NumPy is not MATLAB :).  That said, I prefer the MATLAB behavior in
> this case -- even though it has a bit of a "magic" feel to it, I find it hard to
> imagine code that operates correctly given the Python semantics and incorrectly
> under MATLAB's.  Thoughts?

You raise a good point.  Neither arange nor linspace provides a close 
equivalent to the nice behavior of the Matlab colon, even though that is 
often what one really wants.  Adding this, either via an arange kwarg, a 
linspace kwarg, or a new function, seems like a good idea.

Eric

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