Numeric comparison difficulty in R
- by Matt Parker
I'm trying to compare two numbers in R as a part of a if-statement condition:
(a-b) >= 0.5
In this particular instance, a = 0.58 and b = 0.08... and yet (a-b) >= 0.5 is false. I'm aware of the dangers of using == for exact number comparisons, and this seems related:
(a - b) == 0.5) is false, while
all.equal((a - b), 0.5) is true.
The only solution I can think of is to have two conditions: (a-b) > 0.5 | all.equal((a-b), 0.5). This works, but is that really the only solution? Should I just swear off of the = family of comparison operators forever?