Is it valid to do x == Inf?

Hi,

I found in a bit of code the following test for infinity:

?if (x == Inf) ...

Is that valid, or should it be (as I always thought):

?if (is.infinite(x)) ...?

Does it depend on whether 'x' is float or integer?

My question is related to testing for missing values where is.na(x) is required.

Well, '-Inf' is infinite too:

 > is.infinite(-Inf)
 [1] TRUE

 but is not equal to Inf:

 > Inf == -Inf
 [1] FALSE

 Also, ?is.infinite says it is a generic method, so is.infinite(x)
could be doing anything, depending on x. I would say the best way of
testing if x is a numeric value of plus infinity would be to test
x==Inf.

 Also also, is.infinite (on a numeric vector) returns FALSE on NA, and
NaN, whereas x==Inf returns NA values for non nice-number inputs.

Barry

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Hi,

I found in a bit of code the following test for infinity:

 if (x == Inf) ...

Is that valid

Yes, if you don't want to also include -Inf

, or should it be (as I always thought):

 if (is.infinite(x)) ...?

If you don't want to distinguish Inf and -Inf

Does it depend on whether 'x' is float or integer?

There isn't an integer infinity. Integer values larger than the maximum reprensentable give NA
eg > .Machine$integer.max+1L
[1] NA

My question is related to testing for missing values where is.na(x) is required.

NA is different, because NA by its nature can't compare equal to anything: x==NA asks: "Is x equal to some number I don't know?", to which the answer is "Don't know".

x==Inf asks "Is x positive infinite?", which is a perfectly well-defined question.

     -thomas

Thomas Lumley			Assoc. Professor, Biostatistics
tlumley at u.washington.edu	University of Washington, Seattle