R devel - Sep 2004 - hist( ) fails with 'Inf' values unlike plot( ) (PR#7220)

Full_Name: Elizabeth Purdom
Version: 1.9.1
OS: Windows
Submission from: (NULL) (171.64.102.192)


hist() fails if encounters 'Inf' value, rather than giving warning and
removing.
Other graphics, like plot(), don't have this problem. It's actually
rather
confusing if you are taking the log of data real valued data with a few
non-positive numbers. hist() works fine in this situation unless you happen to
have an exact 0, as oppose to just negative numbers. Then log(0)=Inf while
log(-1)=NA and NA values are removed by the program while Inf kills it. At least
a better error message would be good, because as it is, it looks like the
program can't handle NAs. 
> x<-seq(-5,100,by=1)
##Gives error, no output
> hist(log(x))
Error in pretty(range(x), n = breaks, min.n = 1) : 
        NA/NaN/Inf in foreign function call (arg 1)
In addition: Warning message: 
NaNs produced in: log(x) 
##Gives log() warning
> hist(log(x)[!is.infinite(log(x))])
Warning messages: 
1: NaNs produced in: log(x) 
2: NaNs produced in: log(x)

One problem here is pretty() which should accept non-finite values as it 
does in S.  It will in 2.0.0.

It is easiest to change !is.na to is.finite, which is what some plot() 
methods use.

On Thu, 9 Sep 2004 epurdom@stanford.edu wrote:
> Full_Name: Elizabeth Purdom
> Version: 1.9.1
> OS: Windows
> Submission from: (NULL) (171.64.102.192)
> 
> 
> hist() fails if encounters 'Inf' value, rather than giving warning
and removing.
> Other graphics, like plot(), don't have this problem. It's actually
rather
> confusing if you are taking the log of data real valued data with a few
> non-positive numbers. hist() works fine in this situation unless you happen
to
> have an exact 0, as oppose to just negative numbers. Then log(0)=Inf while
> log(-1)=NA and NA values are removed by the program while Inf kills it. At
least
> a better error message would be good, because as it is, it looks like the
> program can't handle NAs. 
> 
> > x<-seq(-5,100,by=1)
> ##Gives error, no output
> > hist(log(x))
> Error in pretty(range(x), n = breaks, min.n = 1) : 
>         NA/NaN/Inf in foreign function call (arg 1)
> In addition: Warning message: 
> NaNs produced in: log(x) 
> ##Gives log() warning
> > hist(log(x)[!is.infinite(log(x))])
> Warning messages: 
> 1: NaNs produced in: log(x) 
> 2: NaNs produced in: log(x)
> 
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> R-devel@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
> 
> 
-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595