[R] R accuracy

[Don MacQueen]

Try

   signif(m,8)


At 1:03 AM -0800 3/23/05, Anthony Landrevie wrote:
>Hello,
>
>I am trying to test the precision of R on datasets from The 
>Statistical Reference Datasets Project 
>http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/strd/index.html and I don't manage to 
>understand how R is storing its results.
>
>For example, I calculate a mean on the michelso dataset (100 values) and find:
>
>>  m=mean(michel)
>>  m
>       V1
>299.8524
>>  print(m,digits=15)
>       V1
>299.8524
>
>>  print(m,digits=22)
>                 V1
>299.85239999999993
>
>
>The certified value of the mean is 299.85240, so I try
>
>
>>  print(m-299.8524)
>            V1
>-5.684342e-14
>
>>  print(m-299.8524,digits=15)
>                    V1
>-5.68434188608080e-14
>
>Does it have a sens to print with more than 15 signifiant digits?
>Why is the difference not equal to zero?
>
>I am using R 2.0.1 under Windows XP.
>
>Regards,
>
>Anthony Landrevie
>
>
>---------------------------------
>
>
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>
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-- 
--------------------------------------
Don MacQueen
Environmental Protection Department
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Livermore, CA, USA