I think Jeff is right, but there is a minor bit of history that is missing.
The Intel 8087 numeric coprocessor, announced in 1980, was (in effect) based on a draft version of what later became the IEEE754-1985 standard, and the 8087 included "NaN" as part of its exception handling routines. However, these days "NaN" is usually translated as "not a number", while the Intel manuals for the 8087 usually translate the acronym as "Non-Number". So, "NaN" is just a bit older than "IEEE754-1985" might suggest. >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> <mailto: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.htmlThere 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 > asthere are other languages that use the concept, albeit may not capitalize > itthe same way. But in an error message, any programmer can be setting up > thetext. 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 anylanguage specifically uses it and your > example ended with a percent sign.-----Original Message-----From: R-help > > <r-help-boun...@r-project.org> <mailto:r-help-boun...@r-project.org>> On > Behalf Of Bert GunterSent: Friday, October 29, 2021 11:36 AMTo: R-help > > <r-help@r-project.org> <mailto:r-help@r-project.org>> Subject: [R] Probably > off topic but I hope amusingThere was a little discussion today (yet again) > about floating pointarithmetic. 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 whetherthis 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 ______________________________________________> > 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. > - T. Arthur Milne ______________________________________________ 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.
