bugGNU Octave - Bugs: bug #37535, Numeric functions don't check for...

 
 

bug #37535: Numeric functions don't check for string inputs

Submitter:  None
Submitted:  Wed 10 Oct 2012 01:30:38 PM UTC
   
 
Category:  Interpreter Severity:  2 - Minor
Priority:  3 - Low Item Group:  None
Status:  Fixed Assigned to:  None
Originator Name:  sawatts Originator Email:  -email is unavailable-
Open/Closed:  * Closed Release:  * 3.6.2
Operating System:  * Microsoft Windows Fixed Release:  None
Planned Release:  None
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Mon 15 Oct 2012 03:52:22 AM UTC, comment #11: 

I changed the expected value in the strplit test suite so that all tests pass again.  I'm closing this report.

Rik <rik5>
Group administrator
Thu 11 Oct 2012 08:19:17 PM UTC, comment #10: 

There's one new test failure with 'make check' in strsplit.  Try just 'test strsplit' to find it.  It seems that splitting with a null string used to return an empty matrix ([]) and now returns an empty string ("").  Frankly, this behavior makes more sense so it is probably the expected value in the test suite that should be changed.

Rik <rik5>
Group administrator
Thu 11 Oct 2012 05:33:46 PM UTC, comment #9: 

I'm not sure my suggestion is the best fix.

How about the following change instead?  It will at least fix the problem for the numeric mapper functions.

http://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/rev/814c4b0d5c49

Is that good enough?  OK to close this report?

John W. Eaton <jwe>
Group administrator
Wed 10 Oct 2012 10:05:06 PM UTC, comment #8: 

John,

This seems definitely better than the current behavior.
I think str-to-num warning on is warning enough.  But
no strong preference.

Good!

Someday, the work of going through mappers.cc and the
others may be somewhat more informative...

Michael Godfrey <godfrey>
Group Member
Wed 10 Oct 2012 09:47:38 PM UTC, comment #7: 

Should we just set the default for the Octave:str-to-num warning to be on (or error?) unless using --traditional?


octave:5> warning on Octave:str-to-num
octave:6> cos 1
warning: implicit conversion from string to real N-d array
ans =  0.30059
octave:7> warning error Octave:str-to-num
octave:8> cos 1
error: implicit conversion from string to real N-d array
octave:8>


John W. Eaton <jwe>
Group administrator
Wed 10 Oct 2012 06:50:10 PM UTC, comment #6: 

Matlab really does!

I agree that it is minor, but should be done
independently of Matlab behaviour.  About
how many functions needing this outside
mappers.cc are there?

Michael Godfrey <godfrey>
Group Member
Wed 10 Oct 2012 06:16:53 PM UTC, comment #5: 

If Matlab really behaves this way, it's going to take a huge effort to make Octave error out for all of the numeric functions erroring out on string inputs. It's not just "cos 1", but "exp 1" and "nextpow2 1" and "abs 1" and "sign -1" and so on. A lot of these can be caught as mappers, but the rest of them would have to be checked individually.

Since this doesn't affect working Matlab code, I'm reducing the priority.

Jordi GutiƩrrez Hermoso <jordigh>
Group Member
Wed 10 Oct 2012 05:08:44 PM UTC, comment #4: 

I would view the current behaviour as undesirable and error prone.

Given three statements:

>> cos (1)
>> cos  1
>> cos "1"


Neither gives an error, but the middle statement in ambiguous - either parenthesis or quotes could have been missed.

The reason for closing this bug has been shown to be incorrect, therefore it should be reopened.

Simon A Watts <sawatts>
Wed 10 Oct 2012 04:09:32 PM UTC, comment #3: 

Not true.  Matlab says:

>> cos 1

??? Undefined function or method 'cos' for input arguments of type 'char'.
 

>> cos(1)


ans =

    0.5403

>> cos('Hello')

??? Undefined function or method 'cos' for input arguments of type 'char'.
 
 

>> version


ans =

7.9.0.529 (R2009b)

>>


=============================
Regardless of Matlab, I think that it would be
more "user friendly" to do an argument check.

Michael Godfrey <godfrey>
Group Member
Wed 10 Oct 2012 03:44:13 PM UTC, comment #2: 

Not a bug. This is how Matlab also behaves.

Jordi GutiƩrrez Hermoso <jordigh>
Group Member
Wed 10 Oct 2012 01:47:25 PM UTC, comment #1: 

This behaviour is true of all the trig functions
in mappers.cc.  There is no argument type checking.
cos("1")
and
cos("Hello")
also do not generate errrors.

Michael Godfrey <godfrey>
Group Member
Wed 10 Oct 2012 01:30:38 PM UTC, original submission:  

This is odd behaviour which I would not expect from the interpretor:

Missing parentheses after (buildin) function call are not an error:

1> cos (1)
ans = 0.54030
2> cos 1
ans = 0.30059

In line 2, the return is the cosine of the ASCII value of '1', or 49.

I would have expected line 2 to generate an error at least.

Anonymous

 

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    Follow 9 latest changes.

    Date Changed by Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced by
    2012-10-15 rik5 StatusConfirmed Fixed
        Open/ClosedOpen Closed
    2012-10-10 jordigh Severity3 - Normal 2 - Minor
        Priority5 - Normal 3 - Low
        Summary&quot;cos 1&quot; vs &quot;cos (1)&quot; Numeric functions don't check for string inputs
    2012-10-10 jordigh StatusInvalid / Not an Octave Bug Confirmed
        Open/ClosedClosed Open
    2012-10-10 jordigh StatusNone Invalid / Not an Octave Bug
        Open/ClosedOpen Closed

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