Date:         Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:13:36 +0000
Reply-To:     "Lemon, John S." <j.s.lemon@abdn.ac.uk>
Sender:       "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Lemon, John S." <j.s.lemon@abdn.ac.uk>
Subject:      Re: SPSS 17: wrong result computing 3 * 0.7
Comments: To: "Roberts, Michael" <robertsm@ahca.myflorida.com>
In-Reply-To:  <D256A586913C45409DA1F38CFDEEF1B6020F8770@ahcamail.fdhc.state.fl.us>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Surely this is just rounding which happens all the time with computers - in the good old days there was much discussion about this but when I was taught arithmetic ( with log tables and slide rules ) we always understood 2.099999999999999 was the same as 2.1 !!!


Best Wishes

John S. Lemon
DIT ( Directorate of Information Technology ) - Student Liaison Officer
University of Aberdeen
Edward Wright Building: Room G51

Tel:  +44 1224 273350
Fax: +44 1224 273372


-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Roberts, Michael
Sent: 13 November 2008 14:10
To: SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: SPSS 17: wrong result computing 3 * 0.7

Maybe your system is older (?)  I created a variable with the same
syntax and get 2.1(?) - using a dell Optiplex gx620, 3.2ghz,2gb Ram,
etc.  Perhaps you could try on another machine and see what results you
get?

HTH

mike

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Hannes Schreier
Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2008 8:56 AM
To: SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: SPSS 17: wrong result computing 3 * 0.7

Hi all,

when I compute 3 * 0.7 with SPSS 15, I get the correct result 2.1. SPSS
17
delivers 2.0999999999999996. Not much difference, but from such an
expensive
software package you should expect no difference at all! Hope this is
fixed
with the upcoming update...

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