[SciPy-user] Re: nan puzzle

[Robert Kern]

Jim Vickroy wrote:
> Robert Kern wrote:
> 
>> Grant Edwards wrote:
>>
>>> On 2005-07-13, Alan G Isaac <aisaac at american.edu> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>> Anyway, now I cannot replicate the problem.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I still don't understand what the problem is (or was).
>>
>>
>>
>> His original code had
>>
>> >>> z = [0, 1, nan]
>> >>> x = z[2]
>> >>> x is nan
>> False
>>
>> Since "is" evaluates based on pointer comparisons and putting 
>> something in a list or extracting it again by indexing ought to 
>> preserve those pointers, that result shouldn't happen for any object, 
>> nan or otherwise.
>>
>> Of course, "x is nan" is a pretty useless operation as you point out, 
>> and one really should be using some kind of isnan() function. 
>> Preferably implemented by someone other than one's self.  :-)
>>
> Sorry, I joined this discussion in mid-stream so I have may have missed 
> something important, but:
> 
>  >>> x = [1.0, 2.0, 3.0]
>  >>> x[2] is 3.0
> False

Float literals like 3.0 creates a new object every time. nan is not a 
literal; it is a variable.

-- 
Robert Kern
rkern at ucsd.edu

"In the fields of hell where the grass grows high
  Are the graves of dreams allowed to die."
   -- Richard Harter