Re: st: Float Precision

[Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com>]

You say that you understand the reasoning, but when you write

the value appears to be 3.58 when in reality when you click on it, it
is 3.579999

you miss, or mis-represent, the issue. If there is a reality here it
is what Stata is holding your value as, namely, a binary approximation
to 3.58. If it's being held in a -float-, then what is being held is
_closer to_ the binary equivalent of 3.5799999 than it is to the
binary equivalent of 3.58, but what is held is not, and cannot be,
equal to 3.5799999 any more than it is, or can be, equal to 3.58.

. set obs 1
obs was 0, now 1

. gen foo = 3.58

. di %21x foo[1]
+1.ca3d700000000X+001

. di %21x 3.58
+1.ca3d70a3d70a4X+001

. di %21x 3.5799999
+1.ca3d6fcd17756X+001

(Note to the picky: When I try Jamie's example, I see 99999 not 9999.
Presumably the difference is a typo.)


That said, if you find Bill's blog explanation unclear, then you need
to raise specific questions about it. Bill's blog entry was written
because many postings like this have failed to convince some or
sufficiently to clarify what is at stake, and another such exchange is
unlikely to help much.

The tone of your posting is that if this is all true, then it is a
confounded nuisance and perhaps even smacks of bad language design.
(I'm imputing here.) My personal experience in 21 years of very
intensive usage of Stata is that I am bitten by precision issues
occasionally and need to spell out -float()- probably less than once a
year. In practice, things like

gen newvariable=1 if gear_ratio>=float(3.58)

don't arise at all frequently in my experience. As Maarten also
suggests, when you want exact arithmetic, often it just means that you
need to recast the problem to integers. Naturally, that is, as said,
just my experience.

The answer to your last question is that you can -set type double-,
but I'd recommend against it. You end up using vastly more memory, all
for the sake of not being inconvenienced by a syntax quirk that bites
only very occasionally.

Nick

On Wed, Aug 22, 2012 at 10:16 AM, Jamie Madden <jamiem1234@gmail.com> wrote:

> I am having difficultly understanding that I need to write float in
> front of numbers when I am creating new variables in order to
> compensate for precision issues. I have read "the penultimate guide to
> precision" by William Gould but it does not seem to answer my problem.
>
>
> For example if we look at (using Stata 12)
>
>   sysuse auto, clear
>
> at the first row and column "gear_ratio", the value appears to be 3.58
> when in reality when you click on it, it is 3.579999. I understand the
> reasoning behind this and understand if I want to create a variable
> for example that is greater than or equal to 3.58 I should type
>
> gen newvariable=1 if gear_ratio>=float(3.58)
>
> Surely there is no need to type float for every variable that you
> create in a dataset? Is there a way to set this up for your whole
> dataset? Or change the default setting?
>
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