It's true -- blindly using allclose isn't a lot better than blindly using equality testing. (Though given the choice between blindly using one and blindly using the other, I'd still probably vote for allclose... it won't get you quantum mechanics, but it'll do fine for a lot of other things.)
On the other hand, *properly* using allclose (e.g. setting the absolute and expected relative error tolerances) is better than properly using equality testing because in many cases there is no proper use for equality testing. Zach On Feb 21, 2007, at 10:29 AM, Anne Archibald wrote: > On 21/02/07, Zachary Pincus <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> A corrolary: in general do not two floating-point values for equality >> -- use something like numpy.allclose. (Exception -- equality is >> expected if the exact sequence of operations to generate two numbers >> were identical.) > > I really can't agree that blindly using allclose() is a good idea. For > example, allclose(plancks_constant,0) and the difference leads to > quantum mechanics... you really have to know how much difference you > expect and how big your numbers are going to be. > > Anne > _______________________________________________ > Numpy-discussion mailing list > Numpy-discussion@scipy.org > http://projects.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/numpy-discussion _______________________________________________ Numpy-discussion mailing list Numpy-discussion@scipy.org http://projects.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/numpy-discussion
