RE: ORA-FO-180-B: fn:abs undocumented exception is possible

Steve:
In this and a related comment on the unary minus operator
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-qt-comments/2004Feb/0721.html
you say that the magnitude of the largest negative value is less than
the magnitude of the largest positive value.  I don't understand this.
I thought all the these operations did was flip the sign bit but perhaps
some representations work differently.  Could you please elaborate.


All the best, Ashok
-----Original Message-----
From: public-qt-comments-request@w3.org
[mailto:public-qt-comments-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Stephen Buxton
Sent: Monday, February 16, 2004 6:42 AM
To: public-qt-comments@w3.org
Subject: ORA-FO-180-B: fn:abs undocumented exception is possible


SECTION 6.4.1: fn:abs

This function may raise an overflow error if the absolute value
exceeds the capacity of the return type.


- Steve B.