fpclassify - Floating point number classification of Tcl values
Contents
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 Kevin B. Kenny <kennykb@acm.org>. All rights reserved
Tcl 9.0 fpclassify(3tcl)
Description
The fpclassify command takes a floating point number, value, and returns one of the following strings
that describe it:
zerovalue is a floating point zero.
subnormalvalue is the result of a gradual underflow.
normalvalue is an ordinary floating-point number (not zero, subnormal, infinite, nor NaN).
infinitevalue is a floating-point infinity.
nanvalue is Not-a-Number.
The fpclassify command throws an error if value is not a floating-point value and cannot be converted to
one.
Example
This shows how to check whether the result of a computation is numerically safe or not. (Note however
that it does not guard against numerical errors; just against representational problems.)
set value [command-that-computes-a-value]
switch [fpclassify $value] {
normal - zero {
puts "Result is $value"
}
infinite {
puts "Result is infinite"
}
subnormal {
puts "Result is $value - WARNING! precision lost"
}
nan {
puts "Computation completely failed"
}
}
Keywords
floating point
Name
fpclassify - Floating point number classification of Tcl values
See Also
expr(3tcl), mathfunc(3tcl)
Standards
This command depends on the fpclassify() C macro conforming to “ISO C99” (i.e., to ISO/IEC 9899:1999).
Synopsis
package require tcl9.0fpclassifyvalue
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