[erlang-questions] erlang float comparison

[Angel J. Alvarez Miguel]

On Lunes, 14 de Mayo de 2012 15:11:52 usted escribió:
> 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.

Sorry folks, im just a bit puzzled for the strangeness of fp operations

I am talking about things like this:

8> 1.0000000000000001 > 1.0. 
false
9> 1.0000000000000002 > 1.0.
true

And i wander that there is some method for avoiding such beasts..

Well ill be happy just if i can compare if Something > 1.0 and it just returns
false unless Something is really greater than 1.0 (whatever the accuracy is) 
so i can relay on doing things like

if Angle > 1.0 the shutdown_orbital_laser_before_its_too_late().

because we found that:
 math:acos(0.99999999999999991).
1.4901161193847656e-8

 math:acos(0.99999999999999992).
1.4901161193847656e-8

math:acos(0.99999999999999993).
1.4901161193847656e-8

math:acos(0.99999999999999999).
0.0

math:acos(1.0000000000000001). 
0.0

math:acos(1.0000000000000002).
** exception error: bad argument in an arithmetic expression
     in function  math:acos/1
        called as math:acos(1.0000000000000002)

this last case is waht we wanted to avoid, specifically

/Angel

> 
> --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.h
> >>> tm
> >>> 
> >>> 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
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> erlang-questions mailing list
> >>> erlang-questions@REDACTED
> >>> http://erlang.org/mailman/listinfo/erlang-questions
> > 
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