Re: NaNs

From:
Alberto Ganesh Barbati <AlbertoBarbati@libero.it>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++.moderated
Date:
Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:17:25 CST
Message-ID:
<l2gjk.124015$FR.390131@twister1.libero.it>
Tom ha scritto:

First, am I correct that NaNs are NOT trap values, that is reading a NaN
itself (but not using it in an arithmetic expression) does not
automatically yield UB?


There are "quiet" NaNs and "signaling" NaNs. The latter are trap values.
A platform may have either, both or none of the two types of NaNs.

I guess the following snippet below is OK, correct?:

double X = std::numeric_limits<double>::quiet_NaN();

// some code

if (X == std::numeric_limits<double>::quiet_NaN())
...
else
...


It's not ok, because a NaN always compare false with any floating point
value, including itself. In fact a NaN can easily be detected by the
expression (x == x) == false. However, it's better (for several reasons)
to use the library provided function isnan().

Second, 18.2.1.2 of the C++-Standard describes some utility-functions of
numeric_limits, including NaN related. The (non-normative) note to these
functions says "required by LIA-1". Please, what is LIA-1. And moreover,


For LIA-1, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/IEC_10967 which includes
link to download the paper.

how shall I read that note practically speaking? Although the note is of
course non-normative, can I interpret it in a way that practically every
realized platform will offer me NaNs for float, double and long double ?


No, it just says that: LIA-1 requires those features. The standard does
not require an implementation to implement LIA-1, so those feature may
or may not be present.

Third, are there any intended changes to NaNs in the upcoming version of
the Standard?


I don't think so.

HTH,

Ganesh

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