> I am working with large numbers and identified that R looses > precision for such high numbers. Yes. R uses standard 32-bit double precision. See ?double in your R help system. And welcome to finite precision arithmetic, which is a very widely known issue in digital comuting ever since it was invented.
> Is there a solution to the problem? "Yes, lots," said Bilbo, before he remembered not to give his friends away. "No, none at all, not one," he said immediately afterwards. [1] R cannot easily be recompiled to use higher precision, so in that sense, 'none at all'. However, you could use something like the Rmpfr package for arbitrary precision arithmetic. On linux/unix you can use bc (see http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/Arbitrary-Precision-Numbers-td855931.html) Or you could do basic things that address the issue: for example, scale, mean-centre or transform the numbers or change your parameterisation so that you do not need high numerical precision on large numbers. Steve Ellison [1] JRR Tolkien, ' The Hobbit', Chapter 3 (1937) > > Thanks a lot > Stephan > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > ******************************************************************* This email and any attachments are confidential. Any use...{{dropped:8}} ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
