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How do I iterate between 0 and 1 by a step of 0.1?
This says that the step argument cannot be zero:
for i in range(0, 1, 0.1):
print(i)
Rather than using a decimal step directly, it's much safer to express this in terms of how many points you want. Otherwise, floating-point rounding error is likely to give you a wrong result.
Use the linspace function from the NumPy library (which isn't part of the standard library but is relatively easy to obtain). linspace takes a number of points to return, and also lets you specify whether or not to include the right endpoint:
>>> np.linspace(0,1,11)
array([ 0. , 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1. ])
>>> np.linspace(0,1,10,endpoint=False)
array([ 0. , 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9])
If you really want to use a floating-point step value, use numpy.arange:
>>> import numpy as np
>>> np.arange(0.0, 1.0, 0.1)
array([ 0. , 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9])
Floating-point rounding error will cause problems, though. Here's a simple case where rounding error causes arange to produce a length-4 array when it should only produce 3 numbers:
>>> numpy.arange(1, 1.3, 0.1)
array([1. , 1.1, 1.2, 1.3])
range() can only do integers, not floating point.
Use a list comprehension instead to obtain a list of steps:
[x * 0.1 for x in range(0, 10)]
More generally, a generator comprehension minimizes memory allocations:
xs = (x * 0.1 for x in range(0, 10))
for x in xs:
print(x)
Building on 'xrange([start], stop[, step])', you can define a generator that accepts and produces any type you choose (stick to types supporting + and <):
>>> def drange(start, stop, step):
... r = start
... while r < stop:
... yield r
... r += step
...
>>> i0=drange(0.0, 1.0, 0.1)
>>> ["%g" % x for x in i0]
['0', '0.1', '0.2', '0.3', '0.4', '0.5', '0.6', '0.7', '0.8', '0.9', '1']
>>>
Increase the magnitude of i for the loop and then reduce it when you need it.
for i * 100 in range(0, 100, 10):
print i / 100.0
EDIT: I honestly cannot remember why I thought that would work syntactically
for i in range(0, 11, 1):
print i / 10.0
That should have the desired output.
NumPy is a bit overkill, I think.
[p/10 for p in range(0, 10)]
[0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9]
Generally speaking, to do a step-by-1/x up to y you would do
x=100
y=2
[p/x for p in range(0, int(x*y))]
[0.0, 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, ..., 1.97, 1.98, 1.99]
(1/x produced less rounding noise when I tested).
scipy has a built in function arange which generalizes Python's range() constructor to satisfy your requirement of float handling.
from scipy import arange
Similar to R's seq function, this one returns a sequence in any order given the correct step value. The last value is equal to the stop value.
def seq(start, stop, step=1):
n = int(round((stop - start)/float(step)))
if n > 1:
return([start + step*i for i in range(n+1)])
elif n == 1:
return([start])
else:
return([])
Results
seq(1, 5, 0.5)
[1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 5.0]
seq(10, 0, -1)
[10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0]
seq(10, 0, -2)
[10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 0]
seq(1, 1)
[ 1 ]
The range() built-in function returns a sequence of integer values, I'm afraid, so you can't use it to do a decimal step.
I'd say just use a while loop:
i = 0.0
while i <= 1.0:
print i
i += 0.1
If you're curious, Python is converting your 0.1 to 0, which is why it's telling you the argument can't be zero.
Here's a solution using itertools:
import itertools
def seq(start, end, step):
if step == 0:
raise ValueError("step must not be 0")
sample_count = int(abs(end - start) / step)
return itertools.islice(itertools.count(start, step), sample_count)
Usage Example:
for i in seq(0, 1, 0.1):
print(i)
[x * 0.1 for x in range(0, 10)]
in Python 2.7x gives you the result of:
[0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.30000000000000004, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6000000000000001, 0.7000000000000001, 0.8, 0.9]
but if you use:
[ round(x * 0.1, 1) for x in range(0, 10)]
gives you the desired:
[0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9]
import numpy as np
for i in np.arange(0, 1, 0.1):
print i
Best Solution: no rounding error
>>> step = .1
>>> N = 10 # number of data points
>>> [ x / pow(step, -1) for x in range(0, N + 1) ]
[0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1.0]
Or, for a set range instead of set data points (e.g. continuous function), use:
>>> step = .1
>>> rnge = 1 # NOTE range = 1, i.e. span of data points
>>> N = int(rnge / step
>>> [ x / pow(step,-1) for x in range(0, N + 1) ]
[0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1.0]
To implement a function: replace x / pow(step, -1) with f( x / pow(step, -1) ), and define f.
For example:
>>> import math
>>> def f(x):
return math.sin(x)
>>> step = .1
>>> rnge = 1 # NOTE range = 1, i.e. span of data points
>>> N = int(rnge / step)
>>> [ f( x / pow(step,-1) ) for x in range(0, N + 1) ]
[0.0, 0.09983341664682815, 0.19866933079506122, 0.29552020666133955, 0.3894183423086505,
0.479425538604203, 0.5646424733950354, 0.644217687237691, 0.7173560908995228,
0.7833269096274834, 0.8414709848078965]
And if you do this often, you might want to save the generated list r
r=map(lambda x: x/10.0,range(0,10))
for i in r:
print i
more_itertools is a third-party library that implements a numeric_range tool:
import more_itertools as mit
for x in mit.numeric_range(0, 1, 0.1):
print("{:.1f}".format(x))
Output
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
This tool also works for Decimal and Fraction.
My versions use the original range function to create multiplicative indices for the shift. This allows same syntax to the original range function.
I have made two versions, one using float, and one using Decimal, because I found that in some cases I wanted to avoid the roundoff drift introduced by the floating point arithmetic.
It is consistent with empty set results as in range/xrange.
Passing only a single numeric value to either function will return the standard range output to the integer ceiling value of the input parameter (so if you gave it 5.5, it would return range(6).)
Edit: the code below is now available as package on pypi: Franges
## frange.py
from math import ceil
# find best range function available to version (2.7.x / 3.x.x)
try:
_xrange = xrange
except NameError:
_xrange = range
def frange(start, stop = None, step = 1):
"""frange generates a set of floating point values over the
range [start, stop) with step size step
frange([start,] stop [, step ])"""
if stop is None:
for x in _xrange(int(ceil(start))):
yield x
else:
# create a generator expression for the index values
indices = (i for i in _xrange(0, int((stop-start)/step)))
# yield results
for i in indices:
yield start + step*i
## drange.py
import decimal
from math import ceil
# find best range function available to version (2.7.x / 3.x.x)
try:
_xrange = xrange
except NameError:
_xrange = range
def drange(start, stop = None, step = 1, precision = None):
"""drange generates a set of Decimal values over the
range [start, stop) with step size step
drange([start,] stop, [step [,precision]])"""
if stop is None:
for x in _xrange(int(ceil(start))):
yield x
else:
# find precision
if precision is not None:
decimal.getcontext().prec = precision
# convert values to decimals
start = decimal.Decimal(start)
stop = decimal.Decimal(stop)
step = decimal.Decimal(step)
# create a generator expression for the index values
indices = (
i for i in _xrange(
0,
((stop-start)/step).to_integral_value()
)
)
# yield results
for i in indices:
yield float(start + step*i)
## testranges.py
import frange
import drange
list(frange.frange(0, 2, 0.5)) # [0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5]
list(drange.drange(0, 2, 0.5, precision = 6)) # [0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5]
list(frange.frange(3)) # [0, 1, 2]
list(frange.frange(3.5)) # [0, 1, 2, 3]
list(frange.frange(0,10, -1)) # []
Lots of the solutions here still had floating point errors in Python 3.6 and didnt do exactly what I personally needed.
Function below takes integers or floats, doesnt require imports and doesnt return floating point errors.
def frange(x, y, step):
if int(x + y + step) == (x + y + step):
r = list(range(int(x), int(y), int(step)))
else:
f = 10 ** (len(str(step)) - str(step).find('.') - 1)
rf = list(range(int(x * f), int(y * f), int(step * f)))
r = [i / f for i in rf]
return r
Suprised no-one has yet mentioned the recommended solution in the Python 3 docs:
See also:
The linspace recipe shows how to implement a lazy version of range that suitable for floating point applications.
Once defined, the recipe is easy to use and does not require numpy or any other external libraries, but functions like numpy.linspace(). Note that rather than a step argument, the third num argument specifies the number of desired values, for example:
print(linspace(0, 10, 5))
# linspace(0, 10, 5)
print(list(linspace(0, 10, 5)))
# [0.0, 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 10]
I quote a modified version of the full Python 3 recipe from Andrew Barnert below:
import collections.abc
import numbers
class linspace(collections.abc.Sequence):
"""linspace(start, stop, num) -> linspace object
Return a virtual sequence of num numbers from start to stop (inclusive).
If you need a half-open range, use linspace(start, stop, num+1)[:-1].
"""
def __init__(self, start, stop, num):
if not isinstance(num, numbers.Integral) or num <= 1:
raise ValueError('num must be an integer > 1')
self.start, self.stop, self.num = start, stop, num
self.step = (stop-start)/(num-1)
def __len__(self):
return self.num
def __getitem__(self, i):
if isinstance(i, slice):
return [self[x] for x in range(*i.indices(len(self)))]
if i < 0:
i = self.num + i
if i >= self.num:
raise IndexError('linspace object index out of range')
if i == self.num-1:
return self.stop
return self.start + i*self.step
def __repr__(self):
return '{}({}, {}, {})'.format(type(self).__name__,
self.start, self.stop, self.num)
def __eq__(self, other):
if not isinstance(other, linspace):
return False
return ((self.start, self.stop, self.num) ==
(other.start, other.stop, other.num))
def __ne__(self, other):
return not self==other
def __hash__(self):
return hash((type(self), self.start, self.stop, self.num))
This is my solution to get ranges with float steps.
Using this function it's not necessary to import numpy, nor install it.
I'm pretty sure that it could be improved and optimized. Feel free to do it and post it here.
from __future__ import division
from math import log
def xfrange(start, stop, step):
old_start = start #backup this value
digits = int(round(log(10000, 10)))+1 #get number of digits
magnitude = 10**digits
stop = int(magnitude * stop) #convert from
step = int(magnitude * step) #0.1 to 10 (e.g.)
if start == 0:
start = 10**(digits-1)
else:
start = 10**(digits)*start
data = [] #create array
#calc number of iterations
end_loop = int((stop-start)//step)
if old_start == 0:
end_loop += 1
acc = start
for i in xrange(0, end_loop):
data.append(acc/magnitude)
acc += step
return data
print xfrange(1, 2.1, 0.1)
print xfrange(0, 1.1, 0.1)
print xfrange(-1, 0.1, 0.1)
The output is:
[1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 1.9, 2.0]
[0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1.0, 1.1]
[-1.0, -0.9, -0.8, -0.7, -0.6, -0.5, -0.4, -0.3, -0.2, -0.1, 0.0]
For completeness of boutique, a functional solution:
def frange(a,b,s):
return [] if s > 0 and a > b or s < 0 and a < b or s==0 else [a]+frange(a+s,b,s)
You can use this function:
def frange(start,end,step):
return map(lambda x: x*step, range(int(start*1./step),int(end*1./step)))
It can be done using Numpy library. arange() function allows steps in float. But, it returns a numpy array which can be converted to list using tolist() for our convenience.
for i in np.arange(0, 1, 0.1).tolist():
print i
start and stop are inclusive rather than one or the other (usually stop is excluded) and without imports, and using generators
def rangef(start, stop, step, fround=5):
"""
Yields sequence of numbers from start (inclusive) to stop (inclusive)
by step (increment) with rounding set to n digits.
:param start: start of sequence
:param stop: end of sequence
:param step: int or float increment (e.g. 1 or 0.001)
:param fround: float rounding, n decimal places
:return:
"""
try:
i = 0
while stop >= start and step > 0:
if i==0:
yield start
elif start >= stop:
yield stop
elif start < stop:
if start == 0:
yield 0
if start != 0:
yield start
i += 1
start += step
start = round(start, fround)
else:
pass
except TypeError as e:
yield "type-error({})".format(e)
else:
pass
# passing
print(list(rangef(-100.0,10.0,1)))
print(list(rangef(-100,0,0.5)))
print(list(rangef(-1,1,0.2)))
print(list(rangef(-1,1,0.1)))
print(list(rangef(-1,1,0.05)))
print(list(rangef(-1,1,0.02)))
print(list(rangef(-1,1,0.01)))
print(list(rangef(-1,1,0.005)))
# failing: type-error:
print(list(rangef("1","10","1")))
print(list(rangef(1,10,"1")))
Python 3.6.2 (v3.6.2:5fd33b5, Jul 8 2017, 04:57:36) [MSC v.1900 64
bit (AMD64)]
I know I'm late to the party here, but here's a trivial generator solution that's working in 3.6:
def floatRange(*args):
start, step = 0, 1
if len(args) == 1:
stop = args[0]
elif len(args) == 2:
start, stop = args[0], args[1]
elif len(args) == 3:
start, stop, step = args[0], args[1], args[2]
else:
raise TypeError("floatRange accepts 1, 2, or 3 arguments. ({0} given)".format(len(args)))
for num in start, step, stop:
if not isinstance(num, (int, float)):
raise TypeError("floatRange only accepts float and integer arguments. ({0} : {1} given)".format(type(num), str(num)))
for x in range(int((stop-start)/step)):
yield start + (x * step)
return
then you can call it just like the original range()... there's no error handling, but let me know if there is an error that can be reasonably caught, and I'll update. or you can update it. this is StackOverflow.
To counter the float precision issues, you could use the Decimal module.
This demands an extra effort of converting to Decimal from int or float while writing the code, but you can instead pass str and modify the function if that sort of convenience is indeed necessary.
from decimal import Decimal
def decimal_range(*args):
zero, one = Decimal('0'), Decimal('1')
if len(args) == 1:
start, stop, step = zero, args[0], one
elif len(args) == 2:
start, stop, step = args + (one,)
elif len(args) == 3:
start, stop, step = args
else:
raise ValueError('Expected 1 or 2 arguments, got %s' % len(args))
if not all([type(arg) == Decimal for arg in (start, stop, step)]):
raise ValueError('Arguments must be passed as <type: Decimal>')
# neglect bad cases
if (start == stop) or (start > stop and step >= zero) or \
(start < stop and step <= zero):
return []
current = start
while abs(current) < abs(stop):
yield current
current += step
Sample outputs -
from decimal import Decimal as D
list(decimal_range(D('2')))
# [Decimal('0'), Decimal('1')]
list(decimal_range(D('2'), D('4.5')))
# [Decimal('2'), Decimal('3'), Decimal('4')]
list(decimal_range(D('2'), D('4.5'), D('0.5')))
# [Decimal('2'), Decimal('2.5'), Decimal('3.0'), Decimal('3.5'), Decimal('4.0')]
list(decimal_range(D('2'), D('4.5'), D('-0.5')))
# []
list(decimal_range(D('2'), D('-4.5'), D('-0.5')))
# [Decimal('2'),
# Decimal('1.5'),
# Decimal('1.0'),
# Decimal('0.5'),
# Decimal('0.0'),
# Decimal('-0.5'),
# Decimal('-1.0'),
# Decimal('-1.5'),
# Decimal('-2.0'),
# Decimal('-2.5'),
# Decimal('-3.0'),
# Decimal('-3.5'),
# Decimal('-4.0')]
Add auto-correction for the possibility of an incorrect sign on step:
def frange(start,step,stop):
step *= 2*((stop>start)^(step<0))-1
return [start+i*step for i in range(int((stop-start)/step))]
My solution:
def seq(start, stop, step=1, digit=0):
x = float(start)
v = []
while x <= stop:
v.append(round(x,digit))
x += step
return v
Here is my solution which works fine with float_range(-1, 0, 0.01) and works without floating point representation errors. It is not very fast, but works fine:
from decimal import Decimal
def get_multiplier(_from, _to, step):
digits = []
for number in [_from, _to, step]:
pre = Decimal(str(number)) % 1
digit = len(str(pre)) - 2
digits.append(digit)
max_digits = max(digits)
return float(10 ** (max_digits))
def float_range(_from, _to, step, include=False):
"""Generates a range list of floating point values over the Range [start, stop]
with step size step
include=True - allows to include right value to if possible
!! Works fine with floating point representation !!
"""
mult = get_multiplier(_from, _to, step)
# print mult
int_from = int(round(_from * mult))
int_to = int(round(_to * mult))
int_step = int(round(step * mult))
# print int_from,int_to,int_step
if include:
result = range(int_from, int_to + int_step, int_step)
result = [r for r in result if r <= int_to]
else:
result = range(int_from, int_to, int_step)
# print result
float_result = [r / mult for r in result]
return float_result
print float_range(-1, 0, 0.01,include=False)
assert float_range(1.01, 2.06, 5.05 % 1, True) ==\
[1.01, 1.06, 1.11, 1.16, 1.21, 1.26, 1.31, 1.36, 1.41, 1.46, 1.51, 1.56, 1.61, 1.66, 1.71, 1.76, 1.81, 1.86, 1.91, 1.96, 2.01, 2.06]
assert float_range(1.01, 2.06, 5.05 % 1, False)==\
[1.01, 1.06, 1.11, 1.16, 1.21, 1.26, 1.31, 1.36, 1.41, 1.46, 1.51, 1.56, 1.61, 1.66, 1.71, 1.76, 1.81, 1.86, 1.91, 1.96, 2.01]
I am only a beginner, but I had the same problem, when simulating some calculations. Here is how I attempted to work this out, which seems to be working with decimal steps.
I am also quite lazy and so I found it hard to write my own range function.
Basically what I did is changed my xrange(0.0, 1.0, 0.01) to xrange(0, 100, 1) and used the division by 100.0 inside the loop.
I was also concerned, if there will be rounding mistakes. So I decided to test, whether there are any. Now I heard, that if for example 0.01 from a calculation isn't exactly the float 0.01 comparing them should return False (if I am wrong, please let me know).
So I decided to test if my solution will work for my range by running a short test:
for d100 in xrange(0, 100, 1):
d = d100 / 100.0
fl = float("0.00"[:4 - len(str(d100))] + str(d100))
print d, "=", fl , d == fl
And it printed True for each.
Now, if I'm getting it totally wrong, please let me know.
The trick to avoid round-off problem is to use a separate number to move through the range, that starts and half the step ahead of start.
# floating point range
def frange(a, b, stp=1.0):
i = a+stp/2.0
while i<b:
yield a
a += stp
i += stp
Alternatively, numpy.arange can be used.
My answer is similar to others using map(), without need of NumPy, and without using lambda (though you could). To get a list of float values from 0.0 to t_max in steps of dt:
def xdt(n):
return dt*float(n)
tlist = map(xdt, range(int(t_max/dt)+1))
I am using numpy in Python
I have an array of numbers, for example:
arr = np.array([0.1, 1, 1.2, 0.5, -0.3, -0.2, 0.1, 0.5, 1)
If i is a position in the array, I want to create a function which creates a running sum of i and the two previous numbers, but only accumulating the number if it is equal to or greater than 0.
In other words, negative numbers in the array become equal to 0 when calculating the three number running sum.
For example, the answer I would be looking for here is
2.3, 2.7, 1.7, 0.5, 0.1, 0.6, 1.6
The new array has two elements less than the original array as the calculation can't be completed for the first two number.
Thank you !
As Dani Mesejo answered, you can use stride tricks. You can either use clip or boolean indexing to handle the <0 elements. I have explained how stride tricks work below -
arr[arr<0]=0 sets all elements below 0 as 0
as_strided takes in the array, the expected shape of the view (7,3) and the number of strides in the respective axes, (8,8). This is the number of bytes you have to move in axis0 and axis1 respectively to access the next element. E.g. If you want to move every 2 elements, then you can set it to (16,8). This means you would move 16 bytes each time to get the element in axis0 (which is 0.1->1.2->0->0.1->.., till a shape of 7) and 8 bytes each time to get element in axis1 (which is 0.1->1->1.2, till a shape of 3)
Use this function with caution! Always use x.strides to define the strides parameter to avoid corrupting memory!
Lastly, sum this array view over axis=1 to get your rolling sum.
arr = np.array([0.1, 1, 1.2, 0.5, -0.3, -0.2, 0.1, 0.5, 1])
w = 3 #rolling window
arr[arr<0]=0
shape = arr.shape[0]-w+1, w #Expected shape of view (7,3)
strides = arr.strides[0], arr.strides[0] #Strides (8,8) bytes
rolling = np.lib.stride_tricks.as_strided(arr, shape=shape, strides=strides)
rolling_sum = np.sum(rolling, axis=1)
rolling_sum
array([2.3, 2.7, 1.7, 0.5, 0.1, 0.6, 1.6])
You could clip, roll and sum:
import numpy as np
def rolling_window(a, window):
"""Recipe from https://stackoverflow.com/q/6811183/4001592"""
shape = a.shape[:-1] + (a.shape[-1] - window + 1, window)
strides = a.strides + (a.strides[-1],)
return np.lib.stride_tricks.as_strided(a, shape=shape, strides=strides)
a = np.array([0.1, 1, 1.2, 0.5, -0.3, -0.2, 0.1, 0.5, 1])
res = rolling_window(np.clip(a, 0, a.max()), 3).sum(axis=1)
print(res)
Output
[2.3 2.7 1.7 0.5 0.1 0.6 1.6]
You may use np.correlate to sweep an array of 3 ones over the clipped of arr to get desired output
In [20]: np.correlate(arr.clip(0), np.ones(3), mode='valid')
Out[20]: array([2.3, 2.7, 1.7, 0.5, 0.1, 0.6, 1.6])
arr = np.array([0.1, 1, 1.2, 0.5, -0.3, -0.2, 0.1, 0.5, 1])
def sum_3(x):
collector = []
for i in range(len(arr)-2):
collector.append(sum(arr[i:i+3][arr[i:i+3]>0]))
return collector
#output
[2.3, 2.7, 1.7, 0.5, 0.1, 0.6, 1.6]
Easiest and most comprehensible way. The collector will append the sum of the 3 consecutive numbers if their indices are True otherwise, they are all turned to 0s.
The method is not general, it is for 3 consecutives but you can adapt it.
def sum_any(x,n):
collector = []
for i in range(len(arr)-(n-1)):
collector.append(sum(arr[i:i+n][arr[i:i+n]>0]))
return collector
Masked arrays and view_as_windows (which uses numpy strides under the hood) are built for this purpose:
from skimage.util import view_as_windows
arr = view_as_windows(arr, 3)
arr2 = np.ma.masked_array(arr, arr<0).sum(-1)
output:
[2.3 2.7 1.7 0.5 0.1 0.6 1.6]
I was converting some codes from Matlab to Python.
In matlab there is the function mod which gives the modulo operation.
For example the following example shows different results between the matlab mod and the equivalent numpy remainder operation:
Matlab:
>> mod(6, 0.05)
ans =
0
Numpy:
np.remainder(6, 0.05)
0.04999999999999967
np.mod(6, 0.05)
0.04999999999999967
Python modulus operator gives the same results as numpy.
6%0.05
0.04999999999999967
Is there anything in python which gives the same mod operation as the one in Matlab? preferably can be operated on numpy 2d/3d arrays.
numpy documentation says that numpy.mod is equivalent to matlab mod.
This is the core of the problem, in python:
>>> 6/0.05 == 120
True
>>> 6//0.05 == 120 # this is 119 instead
False
The floating-point result of 6/0.05 is close enough to 120 (i.e. within the resolution of double precision) that it gets rounded to 120.0. However, it's ever so slightly smaller than 120, so explicit floor division will truncate that number to 119 before it could be normalized to 120.0.
Some proof:
>>> from decimal import Decimal
... print(6/Decimal(0.05)) # exactly approximate
... print(6/Decimal('0.05')) # exact
119.9999999999999933386618522
1.2E+2
The first number is what you'd first get with 6/0.05, but the number 119.9999999999999933386618522 gets rounded to the nearest number representable with double precision, and this is 120. One can easily prove that these two numbers are indeed the same within double precision:
>>> print(6/Decimal('0.05') - 6/Decimal(0.05))
6.6613381478E-15
>>> 120 - 6.6613381478E-15 == 120
True
Now here's help mod from MATLAB:
MOD(x,y) returns x - floor(x./y).*y if y ~= 0, carefully computed to
avoid rounding error. If y is not an integer and the quotient x./y is
within roundoff error of an integer, then n is that integer.
This suggests that when x/y is close to an integer then it's rounded first, rather than being truncated like in python. So MATLAB goes out of its way to do some magic with the floating-point results.
The simplest solution would be to round your numbers yourself (unless you can use something like decimal.Decimal, but this means you should forgo native doubles entirely, including literals) and reproduce MATLAB's mod that way, assuming that makes sense for your use cases.
Here is a workaround. It basically rounds the denominator to its str representation and from there does integer arithmetic:
import numpy as np
import decimal
def round_divmod(b,a):
n,d = np.frompyfunc(lambda x:decimal.Decimal(x).as_integer_ratio(),1,2)(a.astype('U'))
n,d = n.astype(int),d.astype(int)
q,r = np.divmod(b*d,n)
return q,r/d
a = np.round(np.linspace(0.05,1,20),2).reshape(4,5)
a
# array([[0.05, 0.1 , 0.15, 0.2 , 0.25],
# [0.3 , 0.35, 0.4 , 0.45, 0.5 ],
# [0.55, 0.6 , 0.65, 0.7 , 0.75],
# [0.8 , 0.85, 0.9 , 0.95, 1. ]])
round_divmod(6,a)
# (array([[120, 60, 40, 30, 24],
# [ 20, 17, 15, 13, 12],
# [ 10, 10, 9, 8, 8],
# [ 7, 7, 6, 6, 6]]), array([[0. , 0. , 0. , 0. , 0. ],
# [0. , 0.05, 0. , 0.15, 0. ],
# [0.5 , 0. , 0.15, 0.4 , 0. ],
# [0.4 , 0.05, 0.6 , 0.3 , 0. ]]))
I read that numpy is unbiased in rounding and that it works the way its designed. That "if you always round 0.5 up to the next largest number, then the average of a bunch rounded numbers is likely to be slightly larger than the average of the unrounded numbers: this bias or drift can have very bad effects on some numerical algorithms and make them inaccurate."
Disregarding this information and assuming that I always want to round up, how can I do it in numpy? Assuming my array can be quite large.
For simplicity, lets assume i have the array:
import numpy as np
A = [ [10, 15, 30], [25, 134, 41], [134, 413, 51]]
A = np.array(A, dtype=np.int16)
decimal = A * .1
whole = np.round(decimal)
decimal looks like:
[[ 1. 1.5 3. ]
[ 2.5 13.4 4.1]
[ 13.4 41.3 5.1]]
whole looks like:
[[ 1. 2. 3.]
[ 2. 13. 4.]
[ 13. 41. 5.]]
As you can see, 1.5 rounded to 2 and 2.5 also rounded to 2. How can I force to always get a round up answer for a XX.5? I know I can loop through the array and use python round() but that would definitely be much slower. Was wondering if there is a way to do it using numpy functions
The answer is almost never np.vectorize. You can, and should, do this in a fully vectorized manner. Let's say that for x >= 0, you want r = floor(x + 0.5). If you want negative numbers to round towards zero, the same formula applies for x < 0. So let's say that you always want to round away from zero. In that case, you are looking for ceil(x - 0.5) for x < 0.
To implement that for an entire array without calling np.vectorize, you can use masking:
def round_half_up(x):
mask = (x >= 0)
out = np.empty_like(x)
out[mask] = np.floor(x[mask] + 0.5)
out[~mask] = np.ceil(x[~mask] - 0.5)
return out
Notice that you don't need to use a mask if you round all in one direction:
def round_up(x):
return np.floor(x + 0.5)
Now if you want to make this really efficient, you can get rid of all the temp arrays. This will use the full power of ufuncs:
def round_half_up(x):
out = x.copy()
mask = (out >= 0)
np.add(out, 0.5, where=mask, out=out)
np.floor(out, where=mask, out=out)
np.invert(mask, out=mask)
np.subtract(out, 0.5, where=mask, out=out)
np.ceil(out, where=mask, out=out)
return out
And:
def round_up(x):
out = x + 0.5
np.floor(out, out=out)
return out
import numpy as np
A = [ [1.0, 1.5, 3.0], [2.5, 13.4, 4.1], [13.4, 41.3, 5.1]]
A = np.array(A)
print(A)
def rounder(x):
if (x-int(x) >= 0.5):
return np.ceil(x)
else:
return np.floor(x)
rounder_vec = np.vectorize(rounder)
whole = rounder_vec(A)
print(whole)
Alternatively, you can also look at numpy.ceil, numpy.floor, numpy.trunc for other rounding styles
How do I iterate between 0 and 1 by a step of 0.1?
This says that the step argument cannot be zero:
for i in range(0, 1, 0.1):
print(i)
Rather than using a decimal step directly, it's much safer to express this in terms of how many points you want. Otherwise, floating-point rounding error is likely to give you a wrong result.
Use the linspace function from the NumPy library (which isn't part of the standard library but is relatively easy to obtain). linspace takes a number of points to return, and also lets you specify whether or not to include the right endpoint:
>>> np.linspace(0,1,11)
array([ 0. , 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1. ])
>>> np.linspace(0,1,10,endpoint=False)
array([ 0. , 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9])
If you really want to use a floating-point step value, use numpy.arange:
>>> import numpy as np
>>> np.arange(0.0, 1.0, 0.1)
array([ 0. , 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9])
Floating-point rounding error will cause problems, though. Here's a simple case where rounding error causes arange to produce a length-4 array when it should only produce 3 numbers:
>>> numpy.arange(1, 1.3, 0.1)
array([1. , 1.1, 1.2, 1.3])
range() can only do integers, not floating point.
Use a list comprehension instead to obtain a list of steps:
[x * 0.1 for x in range(0, 10)]
More generally, a generator comprehension minimizes memory allocations:
xs = (x * 0.1 for x in range(0, 10))
for x in xs:
print(x)
Building on 'xrange([start], stop[, step])', you can define a generator that accepts and produces any type you choose (stick to types supporting + and <):
>>> def drange(start, stop, step):
... r = start
... while r < stop:
... yield r
... r += step
...
>>> i0=drange(0.0, 1.0, 0.1)
>>> ["%g" % x for x in i0]
['0', '0.1', '0.2', '0.3', '0.4', '0.5', '0.6', '0.7', '0.8', '0.9', '1']
>>>
Increase the magnitude of i for the loop and then reduce it when you need it.
for i * 100 in range(0, 100, 10):
print i / 100.0
EDIT: I honestly cannot remember why I thought that would work syntactically
for i in range(0, 11, 1):
print i / 10.0
That should have the desired output.
NumPy is a bit overkill, I think.
[p/10 for p in range(0, 10)]
[0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9]
Generally speaking, to do a step-by-1/x up to y you would do
x=100
y=2
[p/x for p in range(0, int(x*y))]
[0.0, 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, ..., 1.97, 1.98, 1.99]
(1/x produced less rounding noise when I tested).
scipy has a built in function arange which generalizes Python's range() constructor to satisfy your requirement of float handling.
from scipy import arange
Similar to R's seq function, this one returns a sequence in any order given the correct step value. The last value is equal to the stop value.
def seq(start, stop, step=1):
n = int(round((stop - start)/float(step)))
if n > 1:
return([start + step*i for i in range(n+1)])
elif n == 1:
return([start])
else:
return([])
Results
seq(1, 5, 0.5)
[1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 5.0]
seq(10, 0, -1)
[10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0]
seq(10, 0, -2)
[10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 0]
seq(1, 1)
[ 1 ]
The range() built-in function returns a sequence of integer values, I'm afraid, so you can't use it to do a decimal step.
I'd say just use a while loop:
i = 0.0
while i <= 1.0:
print i
i += 0.1
If you're curious, Python is converting your 0.1 to 0, which is why it's telling you the argument can't be zero.
Here's a solution using itertools:
import itertools
def seq(start, end, step):
if step == 0:
raise ValueError("step must not be 0")
sample_count = int(abs(end - start) / step)
return itertools.islice(itertools.count(start, step), sample_count)
Usage Example:
for i in seq(0, 1, 0.1):
print(i)
[x * 0.1 for x in range(0, 10)]
in Python 2.7x gives you the result of:
[0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.30000000000000004, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6000000000000001, 0.7000000000000001, 0.8, 0.9]
but if you use:
[ round(x * 0.1, 1) for x in range(0, 10)]
gives you the desired:
[0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9]
import numpy as np
for i in np.arange(0, 1, 0.1):
print i
Best Solution: no rounding error
>>> step = .1
>>> N = 10 # number of data points
>>> [ x / pow(step, -1) for x in range(0, N + 1) ]
[0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1.0]
Or, for a set range instead of set data points (e.g. continuous function), use:
>>> step = .1
>>> rnge = 1 # NOTE range = 1, i.e. span of data points
>>> N = int(rnge / step
>>> [ x / pow(step,-1) for x in range(0, N + 1) ]
[0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1.0]
To implement a function: replace x / pow(step, -1) with f( x / pow(step, -1) ), and define f.
For example:
>>> import math
>>> def f(x):
return math.sin(x)
>>> step = .1
>>> rnge = 1 # NOTE range = 1, i.e. span of data points
>>> N = int(rnge / step)
>>> [ f( x / pow(step,-1) ) for x in range(0, N + 1) ]
[0.0, 0.09983341664682815, 0.19866933079506122, 0.29552020666133955, 0.3894183423086505,
0.479425538604203, 0.5646424733950354, 0.644217687237691, 0.7173560908995228,
0.7833269096274834, 0.8414709848078965]
And if you do this often, you might want to save the generated list r
r=map(lambda x: x/10.0,range(0,10))
for i in r:
print i
more_itertools is a third-party library that implements a numeric_range tool:
import more_itertools as mit
for x in mit.numeric_range(0, 1, 0.1):
print("{:.1f}".format(x))
Output
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
This tool also works for Decimal and Fraction.
My versions use the original range function to create multiplicative indices for the shift. This allows same syntax to the original range function.
I have made two versions, one using float, and one using Decimal, because I found that in some cases I wanted to avoid the roundoff drift introduced by the floating point arithmetic.
It is consistent with empty set results as in range/xrange.
Passing only a single numeric value to either function will return the standard range output to the integer ceiling value of the input parameter (so if you gave it 5.5, it would return range(6).)
Edit: the code below is now available as package on pypi: Franges
## frange.py
from math import ceil
# find best range function available to version (2.7.x / 3.x.x)
try:
_xrange = xrange
except NameError:
_xrange = range
def frange(start, stop = None, step = 1):
"""frange generates a set of floating point values over the
range [start, stop) with step size step
frange([start,] stop [, step ])"""
if stop is None:
for x in _xrange(int(ceil(start))):
yield x
else:
# create a generator expression for the index values
indices = (i for i in _xrange(0, int((stop-start)/step)))
# yield results
for i in indices:
yield start + step*i
## drange.py
import decimal
from math import ceil
# find best range function available to version (2.7.x / 3.x.x)
try:
_xrange = xrange
except NameError:
_xrange = range
def drange(start, stop = None, step = 1, precision = None):
"""drange generates a set of Decimal values over the
range [start, stop) with step size step
drange([start,] stop, [step [,precision]])"""
if stop is None:
for x in _xrange(int(ceil(start))):
yield x
else:
# find precision
if precision is not None:
decimal.getcontext().prec = precision
# convert values to decimals
start = decimal.Decimal(start)
stop = decimal.Decimal(stop)
step = decimal.Decimal(step)
# create a generator expression for the index values
indices = (
i for i in _xrange(
0,
((stop-start)/step).to_integral_value()
)
)
# yield results
for i in indices:
yield float(start + step*i)
## testranges.py
import frange
import drange
list(frange.frange(0, 2, 0.5)) # [0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5]
list(drange.drange(0, 2, 0.5, precision = 6)) # [0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5]
list(frange.frange(3)) # [0, 1, 2]
list(frange.frange(3.5)) # [0, 1, 2, 3]
list(frange.frange(0,10, -1)) # []
Lots of the solutions here still had floating point errors in Python 3.6 and didnt do exactly what I personally needed.
Function below takes integers or floats, doesnt require imports and doesnt return floating point errors.
def frange(x, y, step):
if int(x + y + step) == (x + y + step):
r = list(range(int(x), int(y), int(step)))
else:
f = 10 ** (len(str(step)) - str(step).find('.') - 1)
rf = list(range(int(x * f), int(y * f), int(step * f)))
r = [i / f for i in rf]
return r
Suprised no-one has yet mentioned the recommended solution in the Python 3 docs:
See also:
The linspace recipe shows how to implement a lazy version of range that suitable for floating point applications.
Once defined, the recipe is easy to use and does not require numpy or any other external libraries, but functions like numpy.linspace(). Note that rather than a step argument, the third num argument specifies the number of desired values, for example:
print(linspace(0, 10, 5))
# linspace(0, 10, 5)
print(list(linspace(0, 10, 5)))
# [0.0, 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 10]
I quote a modified version of the full Python 3 recipe from Andrew Barnert below:
import collections.abc
import numbers
class linspace(collections.abc.Sequence):
"""linspace(start, stop, num) -> linspace object
Return a virtual sequence of num numbers from start to stop (inclusive).
If you need a half-open range, use linspace(start, stop, num+1)[:-1].
"""
def __init__(self, start, stop, num):
if not isinstance(num, numbers.Integral) or num <= 1:
raise ValueError('num must be an integer > 1')
self.start, self.stop, self.num = start, stop, num
self.step = (stop-start)/(num-1)
def __len__(self):
return self.num
def __getitem__(self, i):
if isinstance(i, slice):
return [self[x] for x in range(*i.indices(len(self)))]
if i < 0:
i = self.num + i
if i >= self.num:
raise IndexError('linspace object index out of range')
if i == self.num-1:
return self.stop
return self.start + i*self.step
def __repr__(self):
return '{}({}, {}, {})'.format(type(self).__name__,
self.start, self.stop, self.num)
def __eq__(self, other):
if not isinstance(other, linspace):
return False
return ((self.start, self.stop, self.num) ==
(other.start, other.stop, other.num))
def __ne__(self, other):
return not self==other
def __hash__(self):
return hash((type(self), self.start, self.stop, self.num))
This is my solution to get ranges with float steps.
Using this function it's not necessary to import numpy, nor install it.
I'm pretty sure that it could be improved and optimized. Feel free to do it and post it here.
from __future__ import division
from math import log
def xfrange(start, stop, step):
old_start = start #backup this value
digits = int(round(log(10000, 10)))+1 #get number of digits
magnitude = 10**digits
stop = int(magnitude * stop) #convert from
step = int(magnitude * step) #0.1 to 10 (e.g.)
if start == 0:
start = 10**(digits-1)
else:
start = 10**(digits)*start
data = [] #create array
#calc number of iterations
end_loop = int((stop-start)//step)
if old_start == 0:
end_loop += 1
acc = start
for i in xrange(0, end_loop):
data.append(acc/magnitude)
acc += step
return data
print xfrange(1, 2.1, 0.1)
print xfrange(0, 1.1, 0.1)
print xfrange(-1, 0.1, 0.1)
The output is:
[1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 1.9, 2.0]
[0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1.0, 1.1]
[-1.0, -0.9, -0.8, -0.7, -0.6, -0.5, -0.4, -0.3, -0.2, -0.1, 0.0]
For completeness of boutique, a functional solution:
def frange(a,b,s):
return [] if s > 0 and a > b or s < 0 and a < b or s==0 else [a]+frange(a+s,b,s)
You can use this function:
def frange(start,end,step):
return map(lambda x: x*step, range(int(start*1./step),int(end*1./step)))
It can be done using Numpy library. arange() function allows steps in float. But, it returns a numpy array which can be converted to list using tolist() for our convenience.
for i in np.arange(0, 1, 0.1).tolist():
print i
start and stop are inclusive rather than one or the other (usually stop is excluded) and without imports, and using generators
def rangef(start, stop, step, fround=5):
"""
Yields sequence of numbers from start (inclusive) to stop (inclusive)
by step (increment) with rounding set to n digits.
:param start: start of sequence
:param stop: end of sequence
:param step: int or float increment (e.g. 1 or 0.001)
:param fround: float rounding, n decimal places
:return:
"""
try:
i = 0
while stop >= start and step > 0:
if i==0:
yield start
elif start >= stop:
yield stop
elif start < stop:
if start == 0:
yield 0
if start != 0:
yield start
i += 1
start += step
start = round(start, fround)
else:
pass
except TypeError as e:
yield "type-error({})".format(e)
else:
pass
# passing
print(list(rangef(-100.0,10.0,1)))
print(list(rangef(-100,0,0.5)))
print(list(rangef(-1,1,0.2)))
print(list(rangef(-1,1,0.1)))
print(list(rangef(-1,1,0.05)))
print(list(rangef(-1,1,0.02)))
print(list(rangef(-1,1,0.01)))
print(list(rangef(-1,1,0.005)))
# failing: type-error:
print(list(rangef("1","10","1")))
print(list(rangef(1,10,"1")))
Python 3.6.2 (v3.6.2:5fd33b5, Jul 8 2017, 04:57:36) [MSC v.1900 64
bit (AMD64)]
I know I'm late to the party here, but here's a trivial generator solution that's working in 3.6:
def floatRange(*args):
start, step = 0, 1
if len(args) == 1:
stop = args[0]
elif len(args) == 2:
start, stop = args[0], args[1]
elif len(args) == 3:
start, stop, step = args[0], args[1], args[2]
else:
raise TypeError("floatRange accepts 1, 2, or 3 arguments. ({0} given)".format(len(args)))
for num in start, step, stop:
if not isinstance(num, (int, float)):
raise TypeError("floatRange only accepts float and integer arguments. ({0} : {1} given)".format(type(num), str(num)))
for x in range(int((stop-start)/step)):
yield start + (x * step)
return
then you can call it just like the original range()... there's no error handling, but let me know if there is an error that can be reasonably caught, and I'll update. or you can update it. this is StackOverflow.
To counter the float precision issues, you could use the Decimal module.
This demands an extra effort of converting to Decimal from int or float while writing the code, but you can instead pass str and modify the function if that sort of convenience is indeed necessary.
from decimal import Decimal
def decimal_range(*args):
zero, one = Decimal('0'), Decimal('1')
if len(args) == 1:
start, stop, step = zero, args[0], one
elif len(args) == 2:
start, stop, step = args + (one,)
elif len(args) == 3:
start, stop, step = args
else:
raise ValueError('Expected 1 or 2 arguments, got %s' % len(args))
if not all([type(arg) == Decimal for arg in (start, stop, step)]):
raise ValueError('Arguments must be passed as <type: Decimal>')
# neglect bad cases
if (start == stop) or (start > stop and step >= zero) or \
(start < stop and step <= zero):
return []
current = start
while abs(current) < abs(stop):
yield current
current += step
Sample outputs -
from decimal import Decimal as D
list(decimal_range(D('2')))
# [Decimal('0'), Decimal('1')]
list(decimal_range(D('2'), D('4.5')))
# [Decimal('2'), Decimal('3'), Decimal('4')]
list(decimal_range(D('2'), D('4.5'), D('0.5')))
# [Decimal('2'), Decimal('2.5'), Decimal('3.0'), Decimal('3.5'), Decimal('4.0')]
list(decimal_range(D('2'), D('4.5'), D('-0.5')))
# []
list(decimal_range(D('2'), D('-4.5'), D('-0.5')))
# [Decimal('2'),
# Decimal('1.5'),
# Decimal('1.0'),
# Decimal('0.5'),
# Decimal('0.0'),
# Decimal('-0.5'),
# Decimal('-1.0'),
# Decimal('-1.5'),
# Decimal('-2.0'),
# Decimal('-2.5'),
# Decimal('-3.0'),
# Decimal('-3.5'),
# Decimal('-4.0')]
Add auto-correction for the possibility of an incorrect sign on step:
def frange(start,step,stop):
step *= 2*((stop>start)^(step<0))-1
return [start+i*step for i in range(int((stop-start)/step))]
My solution:
def seq(start, stop, step=1, digit=0):
x = float(start)
v = []
while x <= stop:
v.append(round(x,digit))
x += step
return v
Here is my solution which works fine with float_range(-1, 0, 0.01) and works without floating point representation errors. It is not very fast, but works fine:
from decimal import Decimal
def get_multiplier(_from, _to, step):
digits = []
for number in [_from, _to, step]:
pre = Decimal(str(number)) % 1
digit = len(str(pre)) - 2
digits.append(digit)
max_digits = max(digits)
return float(10 ** (max_digits))
def float_range(_from, _to, step, include=False):
"""Generates a range list of floating point values over the Range [start, stop]
with step size step
include=True - allows to include right value to if possible
!! Works fine with floating point representation !!
"""
mult = get_multiplier(_from, _to, step)
# print mult
int_from = int(round(_from * mult))
int_to = int(round(_to * mult))
int_step = int(round(step * mult))
# print int_from,int_to,int_step
if include:
result = range(int_from, int_to + int_step, int_step)
result = [r for r in result if r <= int_to]
else:
result = range(int_from, int_to, int_step)
# print result
float_result = [r / mult for r in result]
return float_result
print float_range(-1, 0, 0.01,include=False)
assert float_range(1.01, 2.06, 5.05 % 1, True) ==\
[1.01, 1.06, 1.11, 1.16, 1.21, 1.26, 1.31, 1.36, 1.41, 1.46, 1.51, 1.56, 1.61, 1.66, 1.71, 1.76, 1.81, 1.86, 1.91, 1.96, 2.01, 2.06]
assert float_range(1.01, 2.06, 5.05 % 1, False)==\
[1.01, 1.06, 1.11, 1.16, 1.21, 1.26, 1.31, 1.36, 1.41, 1.46, 1.51, 1.56, 1.61, 1.66, 1.71, 1.76, 1.81, 1.86, 1.91, 1.96, 2.01]
I am only a beginner, but I had the same problem, when simulating some calculations. Here is how I attempted to work this out, which seems to be working with decimal steps.
I am also quite lazy and so I found it hard to write my own range function.
Basically what I did is changed my xrange(0.0, 1.0, 0.01) to xrange(0, 100, 1) and used the division by 100.0 inside the loop.
I was also concerned, if there will be rounding mistakes. So I decided to test, whether there are any. Now I heard, that if for example 0.01 from a calculation isn't exactly the float 0.01 comparing them should return False (if I am wrong, please let me know).
So I decided to test if my solution will work for my range by running a short test:
for d100 in xrange(0, 100, 1):
d = d100 / 100.0
fl = float("0.00"[:4 - len(str(d100))] + str(d100))
print d, "=", fl , d == fl
And it printed True for each.
Now, if I'm getting it totally wrong, please let me know.
The trick to avoid round-off problem is to use a separate number to move through the range, that starts and half the step ahead of start.
# floating point range
def frange(a, b, stp=1.0):
i = a+stp/2.0
while i<b:
yield a
a += stp
i += stp
Alternatively, numpy.arange can be used.
My answer is similar to others using map(), without need of NumPy, and without using lambda (though you could). To get a list of float values from 0.0 to t_max in steps of dt:
def xdt(n):
return dt*float(n)
tlist = map(xdt, range(int(t_max/dt)+1))