AFAIK NaN originated in the floating point standard IEEE754-1985 as a range of bit patterns that have all 1 bits in the exponent, and the convention to convert such bit patterns to the string "NaN" is an obvious way to handle output of such patterns, regardless of language. Pasting a % symbol after a converted floating point number is likewise common. Not sure I see R lurking here... could just as easily be Python or Java or some other programming language.
On October 29, 2021 10:55:52 AM PDT, Avi Gross via R-help <r-help@r-project.org> wrote: >Bert, > >R is used all over the place, sometimes not visibly. > >A search shows the NY times using it in 2011, 2009, ...: > >https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/technology/business-computing/07program.h >tml > >https://blog.revolutionanalytics.com/2011/03/how-the-new-york-times-uses-r-f >or-data-visualization.html > >There also seem to be several packages for interfacing with the NY Times, >albeit that does not mean much about their usage. > >However, the error message using the phrase "NaN" is not a guarantee as >there are other languages that use the concept, albeit may not capitalize it >the same way. But in an error message, any programmer can be setting up the >text. According to this reference, Rust and ECMAScript also call it a NaN: > >https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NaN > >I am a tad confused it lists a form of "NaN%" without specifying if any >language specifically uses it and your example ended with a percent sign. > > >-----Original Message----- >From: R-help <r-help-boun...@r-project.org> On Behalf Of Bert Gunter >Sent: Friday, October 29, 2021 11:36 AM >To: R-help <r-help@r-project.org> >Subject: [R] Probably off topic but I hope amusing > >There was a little discussion today (yet again) about floating point >arithmetic. Perhaps related to this, I subscribe to the online NYTimes, >which flashes U.S. stock index prices at the top of its home page. Today, >instead of the Nasdaq price being flashed, there was this: > >undefined-NaN% > >I wonder if this means that R is being used as a backend for this or whether >this way of displaying what I think is 0/0 in FP is common. > >Anyway, what do you think most readers reaction to this was?! > >Best to all, >Bert > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > >______________________________________________ >R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see >https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help >PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html >and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > >______________________________________________ >R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see >https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help >PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html >and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. -- Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity. ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
