R devel - Nov 2009 - Unexpected behaviour of seq(from,to,by) (PR#14057)

Full_Name: Raimon Massanet
Version: 2.9.2
OS: Linux Ubuntu 8.10
Submission from: (NULL) (147.83.71.76)


# Hi there.
# I'm not sure whether or not this is a bug.
# But it surely is an unexpected behaviour.

V <- seq(from=0,to=1,by=0.1)

# Should generate a sequence with a step of 0.1

V==0
# [1]  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE
# Ok!

V==0.1
# [1] FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE
# Ok!

V==0.6
# [1] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE
# None?

V[7]
# [1] 0.6
V[7]==0.6
# [1] FALSE
# Rounding!?

V[8]
# [1] 0.7
V[8]==0.7
# [1] FALSE
# Rounding!?

V[9]
# [1] 0.8
V[9]==0.8
# [1] TRUE
# Back to normal

# The generated sequence is fine for all values except for 0.6
# and 0.7, which appear to be somewhat off the expected value.

# According to the R manual the sequence is generated in the form:
# from, from+by, ..., to
# which is not the case.

# Either the function or the documentation lead to an unexpected
# behaviour of seq(from,to,by).

# Thanks!

> # Hi there.
> # I'm not sure whether or not this is a bug.
No, this is not a bug. See FAQ 7.31 at
  http://cran.r-project.org/doc/FAQ/R-FAQ.html
and the comments below.
> # But it surely is an unexpected behaviour.
> 
> V <- seq(from=0,to=1,by=0.1)
> 
> # Should generate a sequence with a step of 0.1
> 
> V==0
> # [1]  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE
> # Ok!
> 
> V==0.1
> # [1] FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE
> # Ok!
> 
> V==0.6
> # [1] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE
> # None?
> 
> V[7]
> # [1] 0.6
> V[7]==0.6
> # [1] FALSE
> # Rounding!?
Yes. The sequence of operations, which leads to V[7], produce
slightly different rounding error than the direct conversion of 0.6
to binary representation. So, we have
  formatC(V[7], digits=20) # [1] "0.60000000000000008882"
  formatC(0.6, digits=20) # [1] "0.5999999999999999778"

See 
  http://wiki.r-project.org/rwiki/doku.php?id=misc:r_accuracy
for more examples and explanations.

Petr Savicky. 
> V[8]
> # [1] 0.7
> V[8]==0.7
> # [1] FALSE
> # Rounding!?
> 
> V[9]
> # [1] 0.8
> V[9]==0.8
> # [1] TRUE
> # Back to normal
> 
> # The generated sequence is fine for all values except for 0.6
> # and 0.7, which appear to be somewhat off the expected value.
> 
> # According to the R manual the sequence is generated in the form:
> # from, from+by, ..., to
> # which is not the case.
> 
> # Either the function or the documentation lead to an unexpected
> # behaviour of seq(from,to,by).
> 
> # Thanks!
> 
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