st: Re: NaN (the inedible kind)

[Christopher F Baum <baum@bc.edu>]

--On Thursday, September 26, 2002 2:33 -0400 Roger wrote:

> What precisely is a NaN? And does it have any connection with missing
> values, or with the "magic number" 1e300 mentioned in -[R] tabstat-? I
> can't find any reference to NaNs in -[R] matrix define-.
NaN is geekspeak for Not a Number. See

http://www.psc.edu/general/software/packages/ieee/ieee.html

IMHO Stata does NOT make use of NaNs, which have the properties that 
missing values should have (i.e. any op involving a NaN evaluates to a 
NaN). If I say

use auto
g byte badrep = (rep78>3)

I get 5 obs of badrep=1 corresponding to rep78==. whereas in true NaN 
arithmetic they would be discarded as having no defined value. (As the IEEE 
std says, there are differences between three constructs, none of which can 
be represented in finite arithmetic: NaN, +Inf, and -Inf). To do this right 
in Stata, I would have to say

g byte badrep = (rep78>3 & rep78<.)

and forgetting the second clause will bite you (well, in this case maybe 
byte you).

Most lower-level programming languages (and some higher-level languages, 
e.g. Mathematica, MATLAB) support NaNs per the IEEE standard. Stata does 
not--it allows missing values to be treated as a very large positive 
number--and that has been the topic of discussion at 'wishes and grumbles' 
sessions at SUG meetings.

I don't know whether Bill Gould is saying that tabstat's 'magic number' 
behavior is inappropriate, but it is established and well defined. Nick Cox 
and I mimicked it in statsmat. It is very useful to be able to indicate 
that a certain matrix cell is not zero but rather not defined.

Kit 
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