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54 | <H3><A NAME="SECTION007652000000000000000"> | |
55 | 5.6.5.2 Special values</A> | |
56 | </H3> | |
57 | ||
58 | <P> | |
59 | The number system for the <tt class="module">decimal</tt> module provides special | |
60 | values including <tt class="constant">NaN</tt>, <tt class="constant">sNaN</tt>, <tt class="constant">-Infinity</tt>, | |
61 | <tt class="constant">Infinity</tt>, and two zeroes, <tt class="constant">+0</tt> and <tt class="constant">-0</tt>. | |
62 | ||
63 | <P> | |
64 | Infinities can be constructed directly with: <code>Decimal('Infinity')</code>. Also, | |
65 | they can arise from dividing by zero when the <tt class="exception">DivisionByZero</tt> | |
66 | signal is not trapped. Likewise, when the <tt class="exception">Overflow</tt> signal is not | |
67 | trapped, infinity can result from rounding beyond the limits of the largest | |
68 | representable number. | |
69 | ||
70 | <P> | |
71 | The infinities are signed (affine) and can be used in arithmetic operations | |
72 | where they get treated as very large, indeterminate numbers. For instance, | |
73 | adding a constant to infinity gives another infinite result. | |
74 | ||
75 | <P> | |
76 | Some operations are indeterminate and return <tt class="constant">NaN</tt>, or if the | |
77 | <tt class="exception">InvalidOperation</tt> signal is trapped, raise an exception. For | |
78 | example, <code>0/0</code> returns <tt class="constant">NaN</tt> which means ``not a number''. This | |
79 | variety of <tt class="constant">NaN</tt> is quiet and, once created, will flow through other | |
80 | computations always resulting in another <tt class="constant">NaN</tt>. This behavior can be | |
81 | useful for a series of computations that occasionally have missing inputs -- | |
82 | it allows the calculation to proceed while flagging specific results as | |
83 | invalid. | |
84 | ||
85 | <P> | |
86 | A variant is <tt class="constant">sNaN</tt> which signals rather than remaining quiet | |
87 | after every operation. This is a useful return value when an invalid | |
88 | result needs to interrupt a calculation for special handling. | |
89 | ||
90 | <P> | |
91 | The signed zeros can result from calculations that underflow. | |
92 | They keep the sign that would have resulted if the calculation had | |
93 | been carried out to greater precision. Since their magnitude is | |
94 | zero, both positive and negative zeros are treated as equal and their | |
95 | sign is informational. | |
96 | ||
97 | <P> | |
98 | In addition to the two signed zeros which are distinct yet equal, | |
99 | there are various representations of zero with differing precisions | |
100 | yet equivalent in value. This takes a bit of getting used to. For | |
101 | an eye accustomed to normalized floating point representations, it | |
102 | is not immediately obvious that the following calculation returns | |
103 | a value equal to zero: | |
104 | ||
105 | <P> | |
106 | <div class="verbatim"><pre> | |
107 | >>> 1 / Decimal('Infinity') | |
108 | Decimal("0E-1000000026") | |
109 | </pre></div> | |
110 | ||
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