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Asked: 2026-05-16T12:36:37+00:00

I just found a bug in some number manipulations in my program and I’m

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I just found a bug in some number manipulations in my program and I’m getting a FloatDomainError (NaN)

So I started logging the number passed in with:

if(metric.is_a?(Numeric))
  self.metric = metric
else
  LOGGER.warn("metric #{metric} is not a number")
  self.metric=0
end

But the number being passed in is NaN which apparently is_a?(Numeric) as I don’t get my log warning, and it passes metric on to my metric= method, which is where I get my FloatDomainError

Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t it seem semantically wrong to have an NaN (Not A Number) be of type Numeric ?? Can someone explain this to me?

BTW using Jruby-1.4.1

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    IEEE 754 floating point numbers define -INFINITY +INFINITY and NotANumber to make it possible to react to lets say division by zero. you can also calculate with these for eg 2 + INF = INF

    NaN isn’t a uniqe ruby feature, they are numeric in java, c++, … too

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