R: Numerical Characteristics of the Machine

.Machine {base} | R Documentation

## Numerical Characteristics of the Machine

### Description

`.Machine` is a variable holding information on the numerical characteristics of the machine R is running on, such as the largest double or integer and the machine's precision.

### Usage

    .Machine

### Details

The algorithm is based on Cody's (1988) subroutine MACHAR. As almost all current inplements of R use 32-bit integers and IEC 60059 floating-point (double precision) arithmetic, most of these values are the same for almost all R builds.

Note that on most platforms smaller positive values than `.Machine$double.xmin` can occur. On a typical R platform the smallest positive double is about `5e-324`.

### Value

A list with components (for simplicity, the prefix ‘double’ is omitted in the explanations)

`double.eps` | the smallest positive floating-point number `x` such that `1 + x != 1`. It equals `base^ulp.digits` if either `base` is 2 or `rounding` is 0; otherwise, it is `(base^ulp.digits) / 2`. Normally `2.220446e-16`.
`double.neg.eps` | a small positive floating-point number `x` such that `1 - x != 1`. It equals `base^neg.ulp.digits` if `base` is 2 or `round` is 0; otherwise, it is `(base^neg.ulp.digits) / 2`. Normally `1.110223e-16`. As `neg.ulp.digits` is bounded below by `-(digits + 3)`, `neg.eps` may not be the smallest number that can alter 1 by subtraction.
`double.xmin` | the smallest non-vanishing normalized floating-point power of the radix, i.e., `base^min.exp`. Normally `2.225074e-308`.
`double.xmax` | the largest finite floating-point number. Typically, it is equal to `(1 - neg.eps) * base^max.exp`, but on some machines it is only the second, or perhaps third, largest number, being too small by 1 or 2 units in the last digit of the significand. Normally `1.797693e+308`.
`double.base` | the radix for the floating-point representation: normally `2`.
`double.digits` | the number of base digits in the floating-point significand: normally `53`.
`double.rounding` | the rounding action. 0 if floating-point addition chops; 1 if floating-point addition rounds, but not in the IEEE style; 2 if floating-point addition rounds in the IEEE style; 3 if floating-point addition chops, and there is partial underflow; 4 if floating-point addition rounds, but not in the IEEE style, and there is partial underflow; 5 if floating-point addition rounds in the IEEE style, and there is partial underflow. Normally `5`.
`double.guard` | the number of guard digits for multiplication with truncating arithmetic. It is 1 if floating-point arithmetic truncates and more than `digits` base `base` digits participate in the post-normalization shift of the floating-point significand in multiplication, and 0 otherwise.
`double.ulp.digits` | the largest negative integer `i` such that `1 + base^i != 1`, except that it is bounded below by `-(digits + 3)`. Normally `-52`.
`double.neg.ulp.digits` | the largest negative integer `i` such that `1 - base^i != 1`, except that it is bounded below by `-(digits + 3)`. Normally `-53`.
`double.exponent` | the number of bits (decimal places if `base` is 10) reserved for the representation of the exponent (including the bias or sign) of a floating-point number. Normally `11`.
`double.min.exp` | the largest in magnitude negative integer `i` such that `base ^ i` is positive and normalized. Normally `-1022`.
`double.max.exp` | the smallest positive power of `base` that overflows. Normally `1024`.
`integer.max` | the largest integer which can be represented. Always `2147483647`.
`sizeof.long` | the number of bytes in a C `long` type: `4` or `8` (most 64-bit systems, but not Windows).
`sizeof.longlong` | the number of bytes in a C `long long` type. Will be zero if there is no such type, otherwise usually `8`.
`sizeof.longdouble` | the number of bytes in a C `long double` type. Will be zero if there is no such type, otherwise possibly `12` (Windows, 32-bit Linux/Solaris) or `16` (64-bit Linux/Solaris, Intel Mac OS X).
`sizeof.pointer` | the number of bytes in a C `SEXP` type. Will be `4` on 32-bit builds and `8` on 64-bit builds of R.

### References

Cody, W. J. (1988) MACHAR: A subroutine to dynamically determine machine parameters. Transactions on Mathematical Software, 14, 4, 303–311.

### See Also

`.Platform` for details of the platform.

### Examples

    .Machine
    ## or for a neat printout
    noquote(unlist(format(.Machine)))

[Package base version 2.8.1 Index]