[Tutor] range()-like function for dealing with floats...?

[Carroll, Barry]

> -----Original Message-----
> Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2007 19:28:51 +0200
> From: Andreas Kostyrka <andreas at kostyrka.org>
> Subject: Re: [Tutor] range()-like function for dealing with floats...?
> To: "Carroll, Barry" <Barry.Carroll at psc.com>
> Cc: tutor at python.org
> Message-ID: <20070330172848.GG5850 at andi-lap.la.revver.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> 
> * Carroll, Barry <Barry.Carroll at psc.com> [070330 19:15]:
> > Try entering "python range float" at your personal favorite search
> > engine.  I tried it on Google.  Here is the first entry returned:
> >
> > 	ASPN : Python Cookbook : frange(), a range function with float
> > ...
> > 	Sadly missing in the Python standard library, this function
> > allows
> > 	to use ranges, just as the built-in function range(), but with
> > 	float arguments. ...
> > 	aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/66472
> > 	- 32k - Cached - Similar pages
> >
> > There were lots of others.
> 
> Just don't forget that floats are not evenly spaced. The hole between
> possible floats gets bigger the more you move away from zero.
> 
> On my IA32 Linux laptop I get:
> 
> >>> (1e+16) + 1 == (1e+16)
> True
> >>> (1e+16) + 10 == (1e+16)
> False
> 
> So a frange(1e+16, (1e+16) + 1000, 1) won't work, or at best will
> result something else than what you thought it would.
> 
> That's probably the reason why frange is not part of the standard
> library: It's not possible to define it sensible for all float ranges,
> and floats have many properties that make them fiendish. Typically,
> programming courses just ignore the problematic aspects (at best one
> learns that floats should not be used to represent money), one usually
> has to take a course on Numerics to get the details.
> 
> Andreas
> 
Andreas is right, of course.  In fact, the URL I referenced above
includes a discussion of the contributor's function and ways of
mitigating (NOT eliminating) the round-off problem.

Regards,
 
Barry
barry.carroll at psc.com
541-302-1107
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