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Groups > comp.lang.python > #8426

Re: Significant figures calculation

From Harold <dadapapa@googlemail.com>
Newsgroups comp.lang.python
Subject Re: Significant figures calculation
Date 2011-06-24 18:50 -0700
Organization http://groups.google.com
Message-ID <218ee71c-ba06-4e94-aaac-c87b44cce554@5g2000yqb.googlegroups.com> (permalink)
References <10b8388e-76fc-4a93-aeff-676cdb3d1d12@5g2000yqb.googlegroups.com> <4e04f793$0$29975$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com>

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> > I tried to modify the DecimalContext (e.g. getcontext().prec = 2) but
> > that did not lead to the correct behavior.
>
> Really? It works for me.

You are right, I did something wrong when attempting to set the
precision.
And the trick with rounding the decimal with the unary + is neat.
It's the first time for me to play with decimals, so bare with me if I
miss
the obvious.

However, this approach forces you to know the number of significant
figures
beforehand -- which is precisely what the arithmetics should do for
you.
What would indeed be nice, is Jerry's suggestion to obtain the number
of
significant bits and write a small wrapper around the number protocoll
implementation that accounts significance and have __str__/__repr__
set
the context dynamically.

I haven't seen anything obvious in the docs, though it might be
possible
to use log10 of the length of some normalized string representation.

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Thread

Significant figures calculation Harold <dadapapa@googlemail.com> - 2011-06-24 13:05 -0700
  Re: Significant figures calculation Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2011-06-24 20:46 +0000
    Re: Significant figures calculation Jerry Hill <malaclypse2@gmail.com> - 2011-06-24 16:58 -0400
      Re: Significant figures calculation steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info - 2011-06-25 10:31 +1000
      Re: Significant figures calculation Chris Torek <nospam@torek.net> - 2011-06-25 19:04 +0000
        Re: Significant figures calculation Harold <dadapapa@googlemail.com> - 2011-06-26 08:35 -0700
          Re: Significant figures calculation Dave Angel <davea@ieee.org> - 2011-06-27 08:04 -0400
        Re: Significant figures calculation Harold <dadapapa@googlemail.com> - 2011-06-27 06:40 -0700
          Re: Significant figures calculation Ethan Furman <ethan@stoneleaf.us> - 2011-06-27 13:53 -0700
            Re: Significant figures calculation Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2011-06-28 12:56 +1000
              Re: Significant figures calculation Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-06-28 13:16 +1000
                Re: Significant figures calculation Erik Max Francis <max@alcyone.com> - 2011-06-27 20:45 -0700
                Re: Significant figures calculation Mel <mwilson@the-wire.com> - 2011-06-28 07:47 -0400
                Re: Significant figures calculation Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-06-28 21:57 +1000
                Re: Significant figures calculation Erik Max Francis <max@alcyone.com> - 2011-06-28 11:54 -0700
                Re: Significant figures calculation Mel <mwilson@the-wire.com> - 2011-06-28 16:47 -0400
                Re: Significant figures calculation Erik Max Francis <max@alcyone.com> - 2011-06-28 14:01 -0700
                Re: Significant figures calculation Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2011-06-28 18:35 +1000
                Re: Significant figures calculation Erik Max Francis <max@alcyone.com> - 2011-06-28 11:59 -0700
              Re: Significant figures calculation Erik Max Francis <max@alcyone.com> - 2011-06-27 20:49 -0700
          Re: Significant figures calculation Ethan Furman <ethan@stoneleaf.us> - 2011-06-27 15:58 -0700
    Re: Significant figures calculation Harold <dadapapa@googlemail.com> - 2011-06-24 18:50 -0700

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