[Numpy-discussion] Floating point question
Robert Kern
robert.kern at gmail.com
Mon Mar 2 15:59:43 EST 2009
On Mon, Mar 2, 2009 at 15:00, Michael S. Gilbert
<michael.s.gilbert at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 2 Mar 2009 15:37:33 -0500, Gideon Simpson wrote:
>> My two questions are:
>>
>> 1. What is the best way to handle this? Is it just to add a filter
>> of the form
>>
>> u = u * ( np.abs(u) > 2.3 e-308)
>>
>> 2. What gives? What's the origin of this (perceived) inconsistency
>> in floating points across languages within the same platform?
>
> how are you calculating fmin? numpy has a built-in function that
> will tell you this information:
>
>>>> numpy.finfo( numpy.float ).min
> -1.7976931348623157e+308
>
> hopefully this helps shed some light on your questions.
That's the most-negative representable float, but it is not the
smallest-positive (normalized) float (.tiny), which is what he needs
to work with.
--
Robert Kern
"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless
enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as
though it had an underlying truth."
-- Umberto Eco
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