Generalized range
Stargaming
stargaming at gmail.com
Thu Apr 26 11:45:36 EDT 2007
tkpmep at hotmail.com schrieb:
> I need to create ranges that can start and end with real numbers.
> Searching this newsgroup brought me to a function that I then modified
> as follows:
>
> def myRange(iMin, iMax=None, iStep=1):
Just as a sidenote: it is not common to prefix your names with its type.
It could change at any time and min, max, step would be clear, too. IMO.
> """Extends range to real numbers. Wherever possible, use Python's
> range .
> In other cases, make the behavior follow the spirit of Python's
> range """
If you want to stick to the "normal" range-implementation, myRange
should consider an one-argument-call as transmission of iMax.
> epsilon = 1.e-8
I can't really say if your attempt using an epsilon-environment is good.
I think just increasing a "counter" from iMin to iMax should be fine,
achieving more precision by making computations fuzzy -- i don't know,
perhaps it's very good. I wouldn't do it.
If you like to care about precision, you should have a look at the
`decimal module <http://docs.python.org/lib/module-decimal.html>`_.
>
> if iMax == None and iStep == 1:
> return range(int(iMin))
>
> elif type(iMin).__name__.lower() in ('int', 'long') and \
> type(iMax).__name__.lower() in ('int', 'long') and \
> type(iStep).__name__.lower() in ('int', 'long') and iStep !=
> 0:
> return range( iMin, iMax, iStep)
Ouchie! *That* is a bad one. Checking for a name of an object is neither
safe nor good nor common. A better way would be directly comparing
type(yourobject) with int/long/float/anytype. See
http://docs.python.org/lib/comparisons.html for details on comparisons.
Another way of type-checking in python is doing something like ``if
isinstance(iMin, (int, long))``. Would work for subclasses, too.
>
> elif iMin <= iMax and iStep > 0:
> return [ iMin+i*iStep for i in range( int(math.ceil((iMax -
> iMin - epsilon)/iStep)) )]
>
> elif iMin >= iMax and iStep < 0:
> return [ iMin+i*iStep for i in range(-int(math.ceil((iMin -
> iMax + epsilon)/iStep)) )]
>
Will eat your memory. See below.
> else:
> raise ValueError, 'Cannot construct a range with steps of size
> ' + str(iStep) + ' between ' + str(iMin) + ' and ' + str(iMax)
In Python, it is common to use string interpolation instead. Like::
print 'Hello from %d to %d' % (iMin, iMax)
Read `String Formatting Operations
<http://docs.python.org/lib/typesseq-strings.html>`_ in the manual for
details.
>
>
> The one part of my implementation that has me a bit queasy (i.e.
> works in my current application, but I can see it misbehaving
> elsewhere) is the addition/subtraction of a fixed epsilon to ensure
> that my rounding goes the right way. A clean implementation would
> modify epsilon based on the achievable level of precision given the
> particular values of iMax, iMin and iStep. I suspect this requires a
> detailed understanding of the implementation of floating point
> arithmetic,
I think so, too. That's why it is a bad idea, IMO.
> and would appreciate hearing any thoughts you might have
> on gilding this lily.
>
> Sincerely
>
> Thomas Philips
>
I'd recommend you to have a look into `generators
<http://docs.python.org/ref/yield.html>`_, it is what `xrange
<http://docs.python.org/lib/built-in-funcs.html#l2h-80>`_ uses. You
don't put all numbers into your memory ("precompute them") but behave a
little bit lazy and compute them whenever the user needs the next one. I
expect Google to have lots of example implementations of range as a
generator in python for you. :-)
HTH,
Stargaming
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