Re: 0.3*3 == 0.9?

[Michael Creel]

2010/8/25 Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso <address@hidden>

2010/8/25 Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso <address@hidden>:

> On 25 August 2010 09:13, Michael Creel <address@hidden> wrote:
>> octave:1> 0.3*2 == 0.6
>> ans =  1
>> octave:2> 0.3*3 == 0.9
>> ans = 0
>> octave:3>
>
> http://docs.sun.com/source/806-3568/ncg_goldberg.html

Oops, sorry, I hit the "send" button too soon.

Anyways, yes, this is completely normal. 0.3 has an infinite binary
expansion because its denominator has factors other than 2, so you'll
get a rounding error. Use something like abs(0.3*3 - 0.9) < 10*eps
instead or whatever seems like an appropriate approximation.

Right, I'm aware of that. My question is whether or not Octave's comparison of floats takes it into account. My impression was that it does, so I was surprised by this. If this is the expected behavior, then I'll just need to perform a revision of by brain's code. :-)

Cheers,

M.