Odp: ^ operator
On 11/16/09, Ted Harding <Ted.Harding at manchester.ac.uk> wrote:
Not in this case (see below), though of course in general "-" takes precedence over "^", so, for example, in the expression -2^(1/3) the "-" is applied first, giving (-2); and then "^" is applied next, giving (-2)^(1/3). There is a work-round (see below).
Hmm.. I may be doing something wrong, but from here it looks to be the opposite.
-2^(1/3); -(2)^(1/3); -(2^(1/3));
[1] -1.2599 [1] -1.2599 [1] -1.2599
(-2)^(1/3)
[1] NaN The results don't change when switching from the unary minus.
0-2^(1/3); 0-(2)^(1/3); 0-(2^(1/3));
[1] -1.2599 [1] -1.2599 [1] -1.2599 It seems to me that in this example "^" is applied first, and "-" second. There is also this fortune entry.
fortune("unary")
Thomas Lumley: The precedence of ^ is higher than that of unary minus.
It may be surprising,
[...]
Herv? Pag?s: No, it's not surprising. At least to me... In the country
where I grew up, I've
been teached that -x^2 means -(x^2) not (-x)^2.
-- Thomas Lumley and Herv? Pag?s (both explaining that operator
precedence is working
perfectly well)
R-devel (January 2006)
Liviu