Is Python's == an equivalence relation on the floats?

Question

In native Python, without using NumPy (for which numpy.nan != numpy.nan) there is no NaN, so am I right in thinking that Python's floating point == is reflexive? Then since it is symmetric (a == b implies b == a) and transitive (if a==b and b==c then a==c), can we say that Python's == is an equivalence relation on the floats?

EDIT: OK, so I learned that there is a NaN: float('nan') (thanks @unutbu) which will propagate through various operations, but does any native Python method return it (rather than raising an Exception) without me introducing it by this assignment?

Answer 1

== is reflexive for all numbers, zero, -zero, ininity, and -infinity, but not for nan.

You can get inf, -inf, and nan in native Python just by arithmetic operations on literals, like below.

These behave correctly, as in IEEE 754 and without math domain exception:

>>> 1e1000 == 1e1000 True >>> 1e1000/1e1000 == 1e1000/1e1000 False 

1e1000 is a very big number, so float and double represent it as an infinity.

• infinity is equal to infinity
• infinity divided by infinity is not a number
• not a number != not a number

Floating-point arithmetic in Python also works OK for infinity minus infinity etc.:

>>> x = 1e1000 >>> x inf >>> x+x inf >>> x-x nan >>> x*2 inf >>> x == x True >>> x-x == x-x False >>>  

And for the zero and minus zero case:

>>> inf = float("inf") >>> 1/inf 0.0 >>> -1/inf -0.0 >>> -1/inf == 1/inf True >>>