On 12/26/19 2:10 PM, Andrew Barnert via Python-ideas wrote:
On Dec 26, 2019, at 10:58, Richard Damon <rich...@damon-family.org> wrote:
Note, that NaN values are somewhat rare in most programs, I think they can only come
about by explicitly requesting them (like float("nan") ) or perhaps with some
of the more advanced math packages
You can get them easily just from math itself.
Or, once you can get infinite values, you can easily get nan values with just
basic arithmetic:
>>> 1e1000 - 1e1000
nan
I guess I didn't try hard enough to get a Nan. But once the Newbie has
hit infinities, NO answer is right. The number could have been 1e1000 -
1e999 (and thus should be big) or 1e999 - 1e1000 (and thus should be
very negative) or 1e1000 - 1e1000 (and thus should be zero), which is
why we get a NaN here. If you are really worried about a median with
values like this confusing someone, then we should handle the issue MUCH
earlier, maybe even trapping the overflow with an error message unless
taken out of 'newbie' mode.
--
Richard Damon
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