[erlang-questions] erlang float comparison

[Hynek Vychodil]

I think this code should work as well

Result = if Myfloat < 1.0 -> Myfloat; true -> 1.0 end,

but little bit more efficient.

On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 11:04 AM, Angel J. Alvarez Miguel <clist@REDACTED> wrote:
> Hi Guys
>
> Thanks for all the comments and all those details. after reading the articles,
> that Richard pointed out, and think a bit about what we need i endended with two
> solutions that for the most part allow us to get it fixed for the moment:
>
> The problem can be stated as:
>
> Result = case Myfloat > 1.0 of
>        true -> 1.0;
>        false MyFloat
>        end
> ...
> ...
> math:acos(Result).
>
> after that  we came across some values that fail to pass the test > 1.0 but are seen
> as greater to the math:acos function rendering a bad arithmetic expression error so finally we manage to do
>
> Result  = case trunc(MyFloat) < 1 of
>        true -> MyFloat;
>        false -> 1.0
>        end
>
> ...
> ...
> math:acos(Result).
>
> that unless anyone see some hidden mosnter that will bite us the... i think it solves our problem.
>
>
> "...My 1st-year chemistry days are long past, but web pages I've checked
> today seem not to quote any bond angles to better than 1 part in 1000
> precision.  And since angles are constrained to [0,one circle), it
> looks to me very much as if we have a case for representing bond angles
> and dihedral angles as fixed point numbers, or at any rate for
> rounding them to multiples of say (one circle)/65536 and comparing
> the angles as integers."
>
> Well take a look at this approach, math code is almost finished as my cooworker ported it from
> an earlier python tool he had developed wher he managed to fix this in a diferent fashion.
> So i was working on the OTP part while we found this "feature" but provided that we have enough
> time to check and surely we will refactor some code to be carried ogen_fsm,'s maybe...
>
>
>
> /Angel
>
> On Lunes, 14 de Mayo de 2012 09:41:01 Angel J. Alvarez Miguel escribió:
>> 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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Hynek Vychodil
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