[Python-ideas] math.nextafter

[Chris Barker]

On Mon, Feb 6, 2017 at 5:42 AM, Juraj Sukop <juraj.sukop at gmail.com> wrote:

> Do you mean something like:
>
>     isclose(f(x), 0.0, rel_tol, abs_tol)
>
> If so, what should `rel_tol` and `abs_tol` be?
>

isclose is mostly about "relative" closeness, so rel_tol is  more-or-less
the number of decimal digits you want the same:

In [13]: isclose(1.11111111119, 1.11111111118, rel_tol=1e-11)
Out[13]: True

11 digits are the same


In [14]: isclose(1.11111111119, 1.11111111118, rel_tol=1e-12)
Out[14]: False

12 aren't

( I say more or less, because FP values are in binary and we tend to think
in decimal)

You might think you'd want to know if the two values are as close as
possible given the FP representation -- which is what nextafter() would
give you -- but it is very, very, rare that a computation accurately
preserves ALL the digits -- and if it did, you could use the regular old
==, <, > checks.

But NOTHING is relatively close to zero, so if you want to compare to zero
you need an absolute tolerance -- what is close to zero in your application:

In [19]: isclose(1e-100, 0.0, abs_tol = 1e-101)
Out[19]: False

In [20]: isclose(1e-100, 0.0, abs_tol = 1e-100)
Out[20]: True

Again, you probably don't want the smallest possible representable FP value
-- cause if your computation was that perfect, why not just check for zero?

Figuring out what value makes sense in your use case requires either
careful numerical analysis (that few of us are capable of!), or
experimentation -- how small a value can you use and get the algorithm to
converge?

-Chris

See PEP 485 for more detail:

https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0485/




> On Mon, Feb 6, 2017 at 2:16 PM, M.-A. Lemburg <mal at egenix.com> wrote:
>
>> On 06.02.2017 13:22, Juraj Sukop wrote:
>> > On Mon, Feb 6, 2017 at 11:29 AM, M.-A. Lemburg <mal at egenix.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >>
>> >> Juraj: Could you provide some use cases, where such a function
>> >> would help in Python applications ? (I can see use cases
>> >> written in C, but due to the low level, find it hard to
>> >> believe that people would use this at the Python level)
>> >>
>> >
>> > In my case, `nextafter` would be used to check if a number is close to
>> > polynomial zero, e.g.:
>> >
>> >     def f(x):
>> >         return 2.0*x**3 - 3.0*x**2 + 5.0*x - 7.0
>> >
>> >     # x = 1.4455284586795218
>> >     x = 1.445528458679522
>> >     # x = 1.4455284586795223
>> >     # x = 1.4455284586795225
>> >
>> >     left = nextafter(x, -float('inf'))
>> >     right = nextafter(x, float('inf'))
>> >
>> >     print((f(left) < 0.0) != (f(x) < 0.0) or (f(x) < 0.0) != (f(right) <
>> > 0.0))
>>
>> Isn't this something you can do with math.isclose() ?
>>
>> This would even give you a predefined error range,
>> not a dynamic one.
>>
>> --
>> Marc-Andre Lemburg
>> eGenix.com
>>
>> Professional Python Services directly from the Experts (#1, Feb 06 2017)
>> >>> Python Projects, Coaching and Consulting ...  http://www.egenix.com/
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>> ________________________________________________________________________
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>
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