float("nan") in set or as key

[Carl Banks]

On Sunday, May 29, 2011 7:53:59 PM UTC-7, Chris Angelico wrote:
> Okay, here's a question. The Python 'float' value - is it meant to be
> "a Python representation of an IEEE double-precision floating point
> value", or "a Python representation of a real number"?

The former.  Unlike the case with integers, there is no way that I know of to represent an abstract real number on a digital computer.

Python also includes several IEEE-defined operations in its library (math.isnan, math.frexp).


Carl Banks