Athula> I have observed the following differences in the use of min/max
Athula> functions between R and Splus (4.5)
Athula> R (0.64.1):
Athula> min(c(NA,NA,NA),na.rm=T)
Athula> returns the following
Athula> Warning in min(..., na.rm = na.rm) : no finite arguments to
Athula> min/max; returning extreme.
Athula> [1] 2147483647
Athula> S-Plus 4.5( Win32 edition)
Athula> min(c(NA,NA,NA),na.rm=T)
Athula> returns
Athula> [1] NA
Athula> The S-PLUS behaviour seems to be the right one
Some of us disagree.
One property of min()/max() should be the following:
x , y : any (vector like) objects :
min(x1,y,.., x2,...) == min(x1, min(y),.. min(x2),..)
This property is fulfilled by R, but not by S-plus.
The idea is that the logically entails
min({empty}) = +Inf
max({empty}) = -Inf
and then min({empty},x) == min(x) = min(x, min({empty})
etc.
Only problem being that "+/-Inf" for integers have to be coded as
"+/- Max.Integer".
---------
The only thing I could think of changing
-- with some extra effort, unfortunately --
is the default type from "integer" to "numeric"
("double").
Reason why this seems to need quite an extra effort:
Think of
min(i1,i2,i3,i4, d1,...)
where i* are integer (vectors) and d1 is a double one.
The current implementation starts with integer type (and hence +Inf = +MaxInt)
and only switches to double when 'd1' is encountered.
Athula> Thanks,
Athula> Athula.
Athula> -- Athula Herath, PhD Oxford GlycoSciences,10, The Quadrant
Athula> Abingdon Science Park, Abingdon, OXON OX14 3YS
Athula> Email:Athula.Herath at ogs.co.uk Phone:+44 [0]1235 544202
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