Message-ID: <A4E5A0B016B8CB41A485FC629B633CED37154E8F0C@GOLD.corp.lgc-group.com>
Date: 2011-11-02T11:33:36Z
From: S Ellison
Subject: why the a[-indx] does not work?
In-Reply-To: <1320008969.30713.YahooMailNeo@web120115.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>
> -----Original Message-----
> From:Alaios
> Sent: 30 October 2011 21:09
> To: William Dunlap; andrija djurovic
> Cc: R-help at r-project.org
> Subject: Re: [R] why the a[-indx] does not work?
>
> What is the difference between though
>
> !numericVector==0 and
>
> -numericVector==0
>
Er... you need to be (a lot) more careful with operator precendence. See ?Syntax for operator precedence.
-numericVector==0
will usually* give the same answer as
numericVector==0
because unary minus has higher precedence than ==, so this is read implicitly as (-numericvector)==0. -1 and 1 are still both nozero, while -0 and 0 are both still zero. ( *'usually' because you may be comparing a double precision nearly-zero with another double precision nearly-zero, and that is _always_ asking for trouble.)
!numericVector==0
behaves quite differently because unary negation (!, or NOT) has _lower_ precedence than ==, so this one is read as
!(numericVector==0)
Operatopr preference rules for programmers:
Rule 1: If in doubt about operator precedence, use parentheses
Rule 2: Always have doubts about operator precedence unless you have looked it up for _that_ version of _that_ language _that day_.
Rule 3: Check the operator precedence of parentheses.
S Ellison
*******************************************************************
This email and any attachments are confidential. Any use...{{dropped:8}}