min/max of a vector with NAs and NaNs

I get this (with R-2.12 and R-2.13, didn't try with earlier versions):

max(c(NaN, NA))
[1] NA
max(c(NA, NaN))
[1] NaN

I get the same thing with min().

The fact that the result of 'max(x)' or 'min(x)' depends on the order
of the elements in 'x' is surprising. It also seems to contradict the
man page:

    By definition the min/max of a numeric vector containing an ?NaN?
    is ?NaN?, except that the min/max of any vector containing an ?NA?
    is ?NA? even if it also contains an ?NaN?.
This seemed to depend on the compiler, and in your case the compiler 
has optimized away the code to achieve this.   I've changed the code 
in R-devel to something that seems to be more robust.  Note that the 
comment did not apply to max(NA, NaN), but that should also now be 
consistent.
Cheers,
H.

-- 
Herv? Pag?s

Program in Computational Biology
Division of Public Health Sciences
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Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
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min/max of a vector with NAs and NaNs

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