RE: [XQuery] IBM-XQ-028 NaN Comparison

Nice catch, Andrew!
 
(It should be classified as XPath, though)
 
Michael Kay


  _____  

From: public-qt-comments-request@w3.org
[mailto:public-qt-comments-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Eisenberg
Sent: 09 April 2004 18:59
To: public-qt-comments@w3.org
Subject: [XQuery] IBM-XQ-028 NaN Comparison



I believe that "le" and "ge" return the wrong values when NaN values are
provided for either of the two operands. 

Consider the following query: 

        let $x := 1.0e0 
        let $nan := xs:double('NaN') 
        return 
                $x eq $nan,        (: will return false :) 
                $x lt $nan,        (: will return false :) 
                $x gt $nan,        (: will return false :) 
                $x le $nan,        (: will return true :) 
                $x ge $nan,        (: will return true :) 
                $x ne $nan        (: will return true :) 

I believe that "le" and "ge" should return false to be consistent with IEEE
754. They return true because: 

1) The definition of op:numeric-less-than and  op:numeric-greater-than in
F&O both contain the following: 

        "If $arg1 or $arg2 is NaN, the function returns false." 

2) The Binary Operator table in XQuery, B.2 Operator Mapping, contains the
following: 

        A ge B        numeric                numeric
fn:not(op:numeric-less-than(A, B))        xs:boolean 
        A le B        numeric                numeric
fn:not(op:numeric-greater-than(A, B))        xs:boolean 


To effect the change I suggest, change the that two rows of the Binary
Operator table to the following: 

        A ge B        numeric                numeric
op:numeric-greater-than(A, B) or op:numeric-equal(A,B)        xs:boolean 
        A le B        numeric                numeric
op:numeric-less-than(A, B) or op:numeric-equal(A,B)        xs:boolean 

                                               -- Andrew

--------------------
Andrew Eisenberg
IBM
4 Technology Park Drive
Westford, MA  01886

andrew.eisenberg@us.ibm.com
Phone: 978-399-5158    Fax: 978-399-7012