bugGNU Octave - Bugs: bug #43728, document / warn about integer...

 
 

bug #43728: document / warn about integer range multiplied with floating point scalar

Submitter:  Markus Appel <mappel>
Submitted:  Sun 30 Nov 2014 01:19:29 AM UTC
   
 
Category:  Libraries Severity:  2 - Minor
Priority:  5 - Normal Item Group:  Documentation
Status:  Need Info Assigned to:  None
Originator Name:  Open/Closed:  * Open
Release:  * dev Operating System:  * Any
Fixed Release:  None Planned Release:  None
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Mon 27 Jul 2015 07:51:02 PM UTC, comment #5: 

I don't agree that this is only "incorrect documentation" ... since the behaviour is not matlab-compatible. Say you create two grids in Matlab (R2014b) with range times scalar and then use intersect to find common grid points:

>> x=(-3:1)*0.1;
>> y=(-2:2)*0.1;
>> intersect(x,y)

ans =

   -0.2000   -0.1000         0    0.1000


while octave gives:


>> x=(-3:1)*0.1;
>> y=(-2:2)*0.1;
>> intersect(x,y)
ans = 0


Using brackets [] instead of parenthesis () is indeed what I meant to do in the first place, and it gives the same result in both octave and Matlab.


Markus Appel <mappel>
Sun 31 May 2015 04:10:33 AM UTC, comment #4: 

Forgot to paste the relevant manual reference:

https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/doc/interpreter/Ranges.html

Mike Miller <mtmiller>
Group Member
Sun 31 May 2015 04:10:04 AM UTC, comment #3: 

It is pretty much stated in the manual that a range multiplied by a scalar gives another range, although maybe an extra example showing why you may not want that when dealing with floating point values would be warranted.

I think it's safe to say this is expected behavior, suggestions for patches to the manual welcome.

Mike Miller <mtmiller>
Group Member
Sun 31 May 2015 04:02:00 AM UTC, comment #2: 

I think the difference seen here may be because Octave allows a range to be multiplied by a scalar and the result is another range object. Multiplying the integer ranges by 0.1 as you have is effectively the same as a floating point range, with the drawbacks of which you were probably trying to avoid.

Specifically,


>> (-1:3) * 0.1 == -.1:.1:(3*.1)
ans =

   1   1   1   1   1

>> (-1:3) * 0.1 == [-.1, 0, .1, .2, .3]
ans =

   1   1   1   0   0

>> (-1:3) * 0.1 == [-1:3] * 0.1
ans =

   1   1   1   0   1

>> [-1:3] * 0.1 == [-.1, 0, .1, .2, .3]
ans =

   1   1   1   1   0


I would like to say this is working as expected, and what you really meant to do was [-1:3]*0.1 to expand the range into a full matrix of integers first, and then multiply elementwise by the scalar. Could be better documented somehow?

Mike Miller <mtmiller>
Group Member
Sun 30 Nov 2014 11:32:30 AM UTC, comment #1: 

Well, it is not just starting with negative index since:
octave:47> mx=(-1:2)*0.1
mx =

   -0.100000000000000    0.000000000000000    0.100000000000000    0.200000000000000

octave:48> mx(4)==0.2
ans =  1

but:
octave:49> mx=(-1:3)*0.1
mx =

 Columns 1 through 4:

   -0.100000000000000    0.000000000000000    0.100000000000000    0.200000000000000

 Column 5:

    0.300000000000000

octave:50> mx(4)==0.2
ans = 0
And, of course:
octave:51> mx=(0:4)*0.1
mx =

 Columns 1 through 4:

    0.000000000000000    0.100000000000000    0.200000000000000    0.300000000000000

 Column 5:

    0.400000000000000

octave:52> mx(3)==0.2
ans =  1

Michael Godfrey <godfrey>
Group Member
Sun 30 Nov 2014 01:19:29 AM UTC, original submission:  

In the following example, I would expect the superdiagonal to be 1 everywhere:


octave:16> m1=(-1:3)*0.1 ; m2=(0:4)*0.1 ; m1==m2'
warning: mx_el_eq: automatic broadcasting operation applied
ans =

   0   1   0   0   0
   0   0   1   0   0
   0   0   0   0   0
   0   0   0   0   1
   0   0   0   0   0


... but it isn't due to a floating point error:


octave:17> m1(4)-m2(3)
ans =    2.7756e-17


Seen on Ubuntu 12.04 with octave 3.8.0 and dev. Matlab R2012b gives the expected result ( with bsxfun(@eq,m1,m2') instead of m1==m2' ).

Complementary tests:

It seems that something goes wrong when the range extends to negative integers, I could not reproduce it with positive ranges only:


octave:89> m1=(1:5)*0.1 ; m2=(0:4)*0.1 ; m1==m2'
warning: mx_el_eq: automatic broadcasting operation applied
ans =

   0   0   0   0   0
   1   0   0   0   0
   0   1   0   0   0
   0   0   1   0   0
   0   0   0   1   0


And using a decimal that can be represented exactly also seems to work fine:


octave:94> m1=(-1:3)*0.125 ; m2=(0:4)*0.125 ; m1==m2'
warning: operator -: automatic broadcasting operation applied
ans =

   0   1   0   0   0
   0   0   1   0   0
   0   0   0   1   0
   0   0   0   0   1
   0   0   0   0   0


Markus Appel <mappel>

 

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    Date Changed by Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced by
    2019-03-01 mtmiller Carbon-CopyRemoved 80942 -
    2015-05-31 mtmiller CategoryInterpreter Libraries
        Severity3 - Normal 2 - Minor
        Item GroupIncorrect Result Documentation
        StatusNone Need Info
        Operating SystemGNU/Linux Any
        Summaryrounding error for integer range multiplied with floating point document / warn about integer range multiplied with floating point scalar

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