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Diffstat (limited to 'doc/gawk.texi')
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/gawk.texi | 74 |
1 files changed, 56 insertions, 18 deletions
diff --git a/doc/gawk.texi b/doc/gawk.texi index 2a1e65c3..6c1f4091 100644 --- a/doc/gawk.texi +++ b/doc/gawk.texi @@ -919,6 +919,7 @@ particular records in a file and perform operations upon them. * Inexact representation:: Numbers are not exactly represented. * Comparing FP Values:: How to compare floating point values. * Errors accumulate:: Errors get bigger as they go. +* Strange values:: A few words about infinities and NaNs. * Getting Accuracy:: Getting more accuracy takes some work. * Try To Round:: Add digits and round. * Setting precision:: How to set the precision. @@ -8413,7 +8414,7 @@ FPAT = "([^,]*)|(\"[^\"]+\")" @c Per email from Ed Morton <mortoneccc@comcast.net> @c @c WONTFIX: 10/2020 -@c This is too much work. FPAT and CSV files are very flakey and +@c This is too much work. FPAT and CSV files are very flaky and @c fragile. Doing something like this is merely inviting trouble. As with @code{FS}, the @code{IGNORECASE} variable (@pxref{User-modified}) @@ -10063,7 +10064,7 @@ infinity are formatted as and positive infinity as @samp{inf} or @samp{infinity}. The special ``not a number'' value formats as @samp{-nan} or @samp{nan} -(@pxref{Math Definitions}). +(@pxref{Strange values}). @item @code{%F} Like @samp{%f}, but the infinity and ``not a number'' values are spelled @@ -18298,7 +18299,7 @@ compatibility mode (@pxref{Options}). @cindexawkfunc{log} @cindex logarithm Return the natural logarithm of @var{x}, if @var{x} is positive; -otherwise, return @code{NaN} (``not a number'') on IEEE 754 systems. +otherwise, return NaN (``not a number'') on IEEE 754 systems. Additionally, @command{gawk} prints a warning message when @code{x} is negative. @@ -33586,21 +33587,9 @@ A special value representing infinity. Operations involving another number and infinity produce infinity. @item NaN -``Not a number.''@footnote{Thanks to Michael Brennan for this description, -which we have paraphrased, and for the examples.} A special value that -results from attempting a calculation that has no answer as a real number. -In such a case, programs can either receive a floating-point exception, -or get @code{NaN} back as the result. The IEEE 754 standard recommends -that systems return @code{NaN}. Some examples: - -@table @code -@item sqrt(-1) -This makes sense in the range of complex numbers, but not in the -range of real numbers, so the result is @code{NaN}. - -@item log(-8) -@minus{}8 is out of the domain of @code{log()}, so the result is @code{NaN}. -@end table +``Not a number.'' A special value that results from attempting a +calculation that has no answer as a real number. @xref{Strange values}, +for more information about infinity and not-a-number values. @item Normalized How the significand (see later in this list) is usually stored. The @@ -33769,6 +33758,7 @@ decimal places in the final result. * Inexact representation:: Numbers are not exactly represented. * Comparing FP Values:: How to compare floating point values. * Errors accumulate:: Errors get bigger as they go. +* Strange values:: A few words about infinities and NaNs. @end menu @node Inexact representation @@ -33890,6 +33880,54 @@ $ @kbd{gawk 'BEGIN @{} @print{} 4 @end example +@node Strange values +@subsubsection Floating Point Values They Didn't Talk About In School + +Both IEEE 754 floating-point hardware, and MPFR, support two kinds of +values that you probably didn't learn about in school. The first is +@dfn{infinity}, a special value, that can be either negative or positive, +and which is either smaller than any other value (negative infinity), +or larger than any other value (positive infinity). When such values +are generated, @command{gawk} prints them as either @samp{-inf} or +@samp{+inf}, respectively. It accepts those strings as data input and +converts them to the proper floating-point values internally. + +Infinity values of the same sign compare as equal to each other. +Otherwise, operations (addition, subtraction, etc.) involving another +number and infinity produce infinity. + +The second kind of value is ``not a number'', or NaN for +short.@footnote{Thanks to Michael Brennan for this description, which we +have paraphrased, and for the examples.} This is a special value that results +from attempting a calculation that has no answer as a real number. +In such a case, programs can either receive a floating-point exception, +or get NaN back as the result. The IEEE 754 standard recommends +that systems return NaN. Some examples: + +@table @code +@item sqrt(-1) +This makes sense in the range of complex numbers, but not in the +range of real numbers, so the result is NaN. + +@item log(-8) +@minus{}8 is out of the domain of @code{log()}, so the result is NaN. +@end table + +NaN values are strange. In particular, they cannot be compared with other +floating point values; any such comparison, except for ``is not equal +to'', returns false. NaN values are so much unequal to other values that +even comparing two identical NaN values with @code{!=} returns true! + +NaN values can also be signed, although it depends upon the implementation +as to which sign you get for any operation that returns a NaN. For +example, on some systems, @code{sqrt(-1)} returns a negative NaN. On +others, it returns a positive NaN. + +When such values are generated, @command{gawk} prints them as either +@samp{-nan} or @samp{+nan}, respectively. Here too, @command{gawk} +accepts those strings as data input and converts them to the proper +floating-point values internally. + @node Getting Accuracy @subsection Getting the Accuracy You Need |