[erlang-questions] erlang float comparison

[Toby Thain]

On 14/05/12 4:47 AM, Angel J. Alvarez Miguel wrote:
> Well we just picked the wrong example
>
>
> that's is the problem
>
> sinosuke@REDACTED:~>  erl
> Erlang R15B01 (erts-5.9.1) [source] [64-bit] [smp:4:4] [async-threads:0]
> [hipe] [kernel-poll:false]
>
> [QuickCheck] [PropEr] [Erl0MQ]
> Eshell V5.9.1  (abort with ^G)
> 1>  1.000000000000000002>  1.0.
> false
>

It's not clear whether you need an approximate equality test as 
suggested by others (tolerance won't help you with > or < or the example 
above) or whether you need more (or arbitrary) precision.

--Toby

>
> On Lunes, 14 de Mayo de 2012 09:50:57 usted escribió:
>> 1>  0.99999998<  1.000000.
>> true
>> 2>  1.99999976<  1.99999988.
>> true
>>
>> What's the problem?
>>
>> On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 9:41 AM, Angel J. Alvarez Miguel
> <clist@REDACTED>wrote:
>>> **
>>>
>>>
>>> Hi guys
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I need to compare two floats something like 0.99999998... vs 1.000000
>>>
>>> and we came across accuracy problems when testing dihedral angles on a
>>> molecule...
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> so we read
>>> http://www.cygnus-software.com/papers/comparingfloats/comparingfloats.htm
>>>
>>> and wanted to implement something like:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> if (*(int*)&f1<  *(int*)&f2)...
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> when ef1 and f2 are floats... (f1 about 0.9999899.. and f2=1.0
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> is think we should start with...
>>>
>>>   <<Padding:16,Myint:64>>  = term_to_binary(1.9999976,[{minor_version,1}]).
>>>
>>> and let Padding swallow the external format and tag while Myint gets the
>>> ieee754 float
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> But MyInt = 4611686017346523993 instead of 1073741822
>>>
>>> these conversion should follow ieee754 and being lexicografic ordered
>>>
>>> but ...
>>>
>>> term_to_binary(1.99999976,[{minor_version,1}]).
>>>
>>> <<131,70,63,255,255,255,191,147,83,89>>
>>>
>>> term_to_binary(1.99999988,[{minor_version,1}]).
>>>
>>> <<131,70,63,255,255,255,223,201,169,173>>
>>>
>>> doesnt seem to be the same thatn you spect to see after reading that
>>> page...
>>>
>>>   ..What im doing wrong....?
>>>
>>> ieee754 layout....
>>>
>>>    +1.99999976
>>>
>>> 0x3FFFFFFE
>>>
>>> 1073741822
>>>
>>> +1.99999988
>>>
>>> 0x3FFFFFFF
>>>
>>> 1073741823
>>>
>>> +2.00000000
>>>
>>> 0x40000000
>>>
>>> 1073741824
>>>
>>> +2.00000024
>>>
>>> 0x40000001
>>>
>>> 1073741825
>>>
>>> +2.00000048
>>>
>>> 0x40000002
>>>
>>> 1073741826
>>>
>>> Thanks!..
>>>
>>> /Angel
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>> erlang-questions mailing list
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